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SUKfc  POP 

and  the 

SAFETYSCOUTS 

Bailey 


\Vbrld  Book  Company 


Sure  Pop  and  the  Safety  Scouts 


Being  a  Safety  Scout  means  doing 
the  right  thing  at  the  right  time. 

—  COLONEL  SURE  POP 


SURE   POP  AND 
THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

BY 

ROY    RUTHERFORD    BAILEY 


PUBLISHED   UNDER   THE   AUSPICES   OF   THE   NATIONAL 
SAFETY   COUNCIL 


ILLUSTRATED 


YONKERS-ON-HUDSON,   NEW  YORK 

WORLD     BOOK     COMPANY 

1916 


Get  the  Safety  Habit 


Copyright,  79/5-,  by  World  Book  Company.     Copyright,  IQIJ,  in  Great  Britain. 
BSPSS-3 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction           .......  i 

Adventure  Number 

One :  Bob  Thirsts  for  Adventure  and  Gets  It     .  3 

Two :  The  Royal  Signet  Ring  ....  9 

Three:  The  Woman  and  the  Wizard          .         .  13 
Four:   The  Persistent  Pigmy      .          .          .          .21 

Five:  The  Magic  Button's  Warning.         .         .  27 

Six:  The  Live  Wire.         .....  32 

Seven  :  Betty  Evens  the  Score  ....  38 

Eight :   Little  Schneider's  Fire  Alarm         .         .  43 

Nine:  "  Chance  Carter's  Way "           ...  49 

Ten :  The  Twins  Meet  Bruce  ....  58 

Eleven:  "Just  for  Fun"     .....  62 

Twelve :  Getting  Down  to  Business  ...  69 

Thirteen :  Dalton  Patrol    .         .         .         .  74 

Fourteen  :  Six  Timely  Tips        ....  82 

Fifteen:  Twin  Uniforms    .....  89 

Sixteen  :  Where  Safety  Was  a  Stranger     .         .  95 
Seventeen :  Giving  the  Other  Fellow  a  Square 

Deal   ........  102 

Eighteen:  An  Adventure  in  Safety   .         .         .no 
Nineteen:  One  Day's  Boost  for  Safety       .         .117 


355302 


THE  SAFETY  SCOUT'S  PLATFORM 

/  will  bear  in  mind  the  value  of  human 
life  and  a  sound  body. 

I  will  take  no  risks  to  endanger  my  body 
or  any  of  its  parts. 

I  will  do  nothing  to  endanger  the  life  or 
limb  of  any  other  person. 

I  will  be  vigilant  not  only  for  my  own 
safety,  but  for  that  of  others,  in  the 
street  or  indoors,  on  foot  or  in  con- 
veyances, anywhere  and  at  all  times. 

I  will  try  to  do  at  least  one  Good  Turn 
for  Safety  every  day. 


INTRODUCTION 

SAFETY  FIRST  —  THE  PREVENTION  OF  ACCIDENTS 

AMERICANS  are  realizing  the  need  for  preventing  accidents. 
The  general  conservation  and  efficiency  movements  and  the 
Workmen's  Compensation  Laws  first  directed  the  attention  of 
employers  to  the  needless  waste  of  human  life.  The  discovery 
that  by  the  safeguarding  of  machinery  and  the  education  of 
workmen  ninety  per  cent  of  the  industrial  accidents  could  be 
prevented,  has  proved  the  value  of  educational  methods  in  Public 
Safety  work,  and  the  Safety  activities  of  public  officials,  trade 
organizations,  public  schools,  churches,  and  other  agencies  have 
been  directed  toward  the  prevention  of  accidents  on  the  street, 
in  public  places,  and  in  homes.  Every  phase  of  human  life  is 
affected  by  accidents,  and  their  elimination  means  saving  human 
life  and  the  avoidance  of  destitution  and  misery. 

The  National  Safety  Council  realizes  the  importance  of  educat- 
ing school  children  in  the  principles  of  Safety ;  for  they  will  be 
the  future  industrial  workers  and  the  representatives  of  public 
opinion ;  their  interest  must  be  aroused  to  practice  and  preach 
"  Safety  First  "  everywhere.  Children  can  be  taught  to  become 
alert  to  their  own  safety,  and  can  influence  their  parents  to  a 
deeper  realization  of  their  responsibilities. 

The  National  Safety  Council  has  directed  the  preparation  of 
this  book  and  hopes  that  through  its  pages  children  will  be 
brought  to  realize  the  manliness  of  caution,  the  importance 
of  courtesy  and  consideration  ;  that,  in  short,  the  Safety  way 
is  simply  the  right  way  of  doing  things ;  and  that  the  efficiency, 
comfort,  and  happiness  of  many  individuals  will  be  increased 
by  the  practicing  day  in  and  day  out  of  "  Safety  First." 

R.  W.  CAMPBELL 

President  National  Safety  Council 

I 


' 


You  have  no  right  to  take  a  chance; 
some   one   else   may  have  to  take  the 

consequences. 

—  COLONEL  SURE  POP 


SURE    POP    AND    THE 
SAFETY    SCOUTS 


ADVENTURE   NUMBER   ONE 

BOB   THIRSTS   FOR   ADVENTURE   AND    GETS   IT 

"Bully  for  Uncle  Jack!"  cried  Bob,  a  stalwart  lad  just 
on  the  edge  of  twelve,  excitedly  waving  a  letter  with  a 
South  American  postmark.  "What  wouldn't  I  give  to  be 
with  him  on  his  exploring  trips  !  Here,  Betty,  listen  to  this 
part  about  their  fight  with  the  natives !" 

"Oh,  don't,  please!"  said  his  twin,  clapping  both  hands 
over  her  ears,  but  listening  just  the  same.  "I'm  always  so 
afraid  Uncle  Jack  will  get  killed." 

3 


4   /.  S,UR£.  POP  AND  THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"Uncle  Jack  get  killed?  Hardly!  Just  listen  to  what 
he  says : 

"'This  last  scrimmage  was  one  of  the  liveliest  I've  ever 
been  up  against.  The  warlike  up-river  tribes,  it  seems,  mis- 
took our  native  scouts  for  a  war  party  and  lay  in  ambush 
for  us.  Might  have  been  worse,  though.  Our  losses  were 
two  men  killed  and  seven  wounded  —  but  of  course  that's 
only  a  fraction  of  what  you  wound  and  kill  every  day  back 
there  in  the  States.'  " 

"Why,  what  does  he  mean  by  that?"  wondered  Betty. 
"There's  no  war  going  on  in  this  country,  is  there?" 

"  Not  that  I  know  of."  Even  Brother  Bob  looked  puzzled 
for  a  moment.  "No  Indians  left  to  fight !  But  say,  Betty, 
Uncle  Jack's  life  is  just  fairly  dripping  with  adventure ! 
Think  of  it  —  every  day  chock-full  of  thrills  and  narrow 
escapes  —  and  adventures  every  time  he  turns  around ! 
Well,  it  won't  be  many  years  now  before  I  can  be  a  scout 
and  explorer  myself." 

A  yell  from  their  playmates  outside  brought  the  twins 
to  the  street  in  a  hurry.  Bob's  legs  were  longer,  but  Betty, 
quick  as  a  cat,  got  there  first. 

"You're  it,  Bob!"  "Bob's  last,  so  he's  it!"  Like  a 
band  of  savages  the  screeching  boys  and  girls  scuttled  across 
the  car  tracks  and  around  the  corners,  while  Bob  counted 
up  to  five  hundred  "by  fives." 

"Four  hundr'  nine'  five,  FIVE  HUNDRED!"  yelled 
Bob,  and  started  to  dash  across  the  tracks,  for  he  had  caught 


BOB   THIRSTS   FOR  ADVENTURE   AND    GETS   IT     5 

a  glimpse  of  Jimmy  West's  new  red  boots  disappearing  under 
his  grandmother's  porch  across  the  street.  The  sound  of 
the  wind  in  his  ears  as  he  ran  drowned  out  the  roar  of  the 
coming  street  car,  and  of  course  he  had  eyes  only  for  those 
tell-tale  red  boots. 

Another  jump  and  Bob  would  have  been  under  the 
wheels  —  but  a  strong  little  hand  on  his  shoulder  stopped 
him.  The  street  car  roared  by  with  a  startled  clang  of  its 
gong,  for  the  motorman  had  seen  Bob  too  late  to  throw  off 
the  power. 

Bob  gasped  in  relief  —  then  whirled  around  to  see  what 
had  stopped  him.  And  what  do  you  think  he  saw,  right 
there  beside  him  in  the  street  ?  Was  it  a  scout  —  or  a 
pygmy  —  or  what  ? 

He  was  old  and  snowy  haired,  but  as  fresh  as  a  daisy 
and  as  spry  as  a  cricket.  His  cheeks  were  as  ruddy  as 
Spitzenberg  apples  and  his  only  wrinkles  were  the  laughter 
wrinkles  at  the  corners  of  his  eyes.  And  such  eyes !  They 
were  big  and  clear,  and  so  bright  that  Bob  could  only  look 
at  them  a  moment  and  then  turn  away.  It  was  like  trying 
to  stare  at  the  sun. 

He  was  tiny,  but  straight  as  a  ramrod  in  his  natty  khaki 
uniform.  And  he  was  holding  up  his  right  hand  just  like 
the  big  policeman  on  the  corner  downtown.  As  he  dropped 
it  to  shake  hands  with  Bob,  there  was  a  sudden  flash  of 
green. 

"Why,   hello   there!"     Bob   could   scarcely  believe  his 


6     SURE  POP  AND  THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

eyes.  "Where  on  earth  did  you  come  from?  And  who  — 
who  are  you,  anyway?" 

"My  name  is  Sure  Pop!  "  answered  the  scout  in  a  clear 
voice,  like  the  note  of  a  bugle.  "I've  dropped  in  on  the 
United  States  on  my  second  tour  of  scouting  duty,  and  I 
hear  you  are  thirsting  for  adventure.  Well,  you've  had 
one,  at  any  rate ;  if  I  hadn't  grabbed  you  just  in  the  nick 
of  time — "  He  shuddered  and  hustled  Bob  back  to  the 
sidewalk. 

"Thanks,  old  scout!"  stammered  Bob.  "I  didn't 
know  there  was  a  car  coming,  and  you  see  I  was  in  such 
a  hurry — " 

"I  see!"  said  Sure  Pop,  dryly.  "7  see,  Bob,  but  you 
didn't.  How  do  you  suppose  a  wee  chap  like  me  ever 
gets  across  the  busy  streets  downtown?" 

"Give  it  up!"  said  Bob,  "unless  you  can  fly!"  And 
he  gave  a  sly  glance  at  the  scout's  square  little  shoulders, 
half  expecting  to  see  wings. 

Sure  Pop  grinned.  "No  more  than  you,"  he  chuckled. 
"So  I  keep  my  eyes  and  ears  open.  Folks  who  have  no 
wings  must  use  their  wits." 

Bob  felt  a  bit  uncomfortable  to  have  his  mind  read  so 
easily,  and  promptly  changed  the  subject.  "  What  a  funny 
name  you  have  —  '  Sure  Pop  ' ! " 

"  Well,  'tis  a  funny  one,  sure  pop  !  That  name  was  wished 
on  me  by  a  crowd  of  Borderland  folk,  and  then  His  Majesty 
gave  it  to  me  for  keeps." 


BOB   THIRSTS   FOR  ADVENTURE   AND    GETS   IT     7 

"His  Majesty  —  do  you  mean  your  King?" 

"Right  — the  King  of  the  Borderland."  The  two  had 
been  walking  toward  the  Dalton  house  as  they  talked. 
Now  Sure  Pop  followed  Bob  up  the  steps  and  curled  up  in 
the  big  porch  chair  to  tell  him  all  about  it. 

"  Once  upon  a  time,  some  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  younger 
man  than  I  am  now,"  began  Sure  Pop,  "  I  was  standing  on  a 
corner  in  the  largest  city  in  the  Borderland.  It  was  noon- 
time, and  crowds  of  horsemen  and  chariots  were  dashing 
up  and  down  the  street. 

"  Suddenly  I  saw  a  youngster  start  over  to  my  side  of 
the  street  without  looking  either  way.     There  was  a  char- 
iot almost  upon  him  when  I  held  up  my  hand,  as  I  did  to 
you  now,  and  yelled,  'Look  sharp!'     He  stopped  short - 
and  those  thundering  wheels  missed  him  by  about  an  inch. 

"He  picked  his  way  across  the  street,  then,  and  held 
out  his  hand.  'That  was  a  close  shave/  he  said.  'You've 
saved  my  life,  Mr. — Mr. — '  For  of  course  he  didn't 
know  my  name  from  Captain  Kidd's. 

"'That's  all  right!'  I  said.  'But  you  should  always 
look  before  you  cross.' 

'"Do  you?1  he  asked,  with  a  sudden  sharp  glance. 

" '  Sure  pop  ! '  I  told  him.     '  Safety  First ! ' 

"By  this  time  quite  a  crowd  of  Borderland  folk  had 
gathered  around  us,  and  they  all  laughed  and  cheered  and 
called  me  'Sure  Pop.'  And  one  bold-eyed  rascal  threw 
up  his  pointed  cap  and  shouted,  'Bully  for  Sure  Pop !'  and 


8     SURE  POP  AND  THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

ran  off  to  tell  the  King.  At  that  all  the  rest  of  the  crowd 
clapped  their  hands,  for  though  they  laughed  at  the  name 
they  knew  I  had  the  right  idea." 

"Ha!"  said  Bob.  "So  that's  how  you  came  by  that 
comical  name  of  yours?" 

"Sure  pop!"  answered  the  Safety  Scout  with  a  twinkle. 

Folks  who  have  no  wings  must  use  their  wits. 

—  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE   NUMBER  TWO 

THE   ROYAL   SIGNET   RING 

Sure  Pop  paused  in  his  story  as  Betty  came  dashing 
around  the  house.  Like  a  shot  the  stranger  jumped  to  his 
feet,  and  again  Bob  caught  that  sudden  flash  of  green  as 
he  raised  his  hand  in  salute. 

"Hello,  Betty,  glad  to  see  you !" 

"Why,  goodness  me!"  exclaimed  Betty.  "You  seem 
to  know  me,  but  I  don't  know  who  you  are  —  unless  you 
are  one  of  those  Boy  Scouts  Bob  is  so  crazy  to  join?" 

"Not  exactly  Boy  Scouts,"  chuckled  Sure  Pop  with  a 
wink  at  Bob,  "unless  you  count  us  boys  till  we're  ninety- 
nine  years  old  !  Girls  are  scouts,  too,  in  my  regiment." 

"Now,  Betty,"  warned  Bob,  "sit  down  here  and  don't 

9 


io          SURE    POP   AND    THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

you  dare  interrupt,  for  Sure  Pop's  right  in  the  middle  of  a 
story  —  and  I  think  he's  come  to  stay  a  while,  haven't 
you,  Sure  Pop?" 

"Sure  pop!  I'll  stay  as  long  as  the  King  will  let  me," 
laughed  the  merry  little  scout. 

"Well,  after  I  got  away  from  the  crowd,"  he  went  on, 
"my  eyes  must  suddenly  have  been  opened  to  the  thousand- 
and-one  things  that  might  happen  even  in  Borderland  to 
folks  who  didn't  look  sharp  on  the  street,  for  on  my  way 
home  I  saved  several  others  from  getting  hurt. 

"The  first  was  a  careless  little  cabin  boy,  who  went 
along  whistling  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets.  He  slipped 
and  fell  plump  in  front  of  a  chariot,  and  of  course  he  couldn't 
jerk  his  hands  out  of  his  pockets  in  time  to  save  himself. 
I  grabbed  him  up  in  the  very  nick  of  time,  or  he'd  have  been 
smashed  flatter  than  a  pancake. 

"And  only  a  block  farther  on,  I  met  a  carpenter  hurry- 
ing through  the  crowd  with  a  ladder  on  his  shoulder.  Some 
one  shouted  to  him,  and  he  whirled  around  with  never  a 
thought  of  his  ladder.  The  end  of  it  would  have  hit  a  fat 
old  banker  squarely  between  the  eyes  if  I  hadn't  been  watch- 
ing for  that  very  thing  and  caught  it  as  it  swung.  I  went 
home  and  thought  no  more  about  all  this,  till  that  night, 
at  midnight,  I  was  summoned  before  the  King." 

"The  King!"  cried  Betty.     "My,  weren't  you  scared?" 

"  I  was,  sure  pop  !  When  I  marched  into  the  throne  room 
it  was  crowded  with  richly  dressed  people.  The  King  and 


THE   ROYAL   SIGNET   RING  n 

Queen  sat  on  their  thrones,  and  as  I  went  toward  them  I 
had  to  pass  between  two  long  lines  of  trumpeters. 

"Suddenly  up  went  the  silver  trumpets,  and  the  trumpet- 
ers blew  a  mighty  blast.  Let  me  tell  you,  it  was  enough  to 
send  the  shivers  down  your  spine,  that  trumpet  call  was ! 
It  seemed  as  if  I  never  had  climbed  a  longer  flight  of  steps. 
But  at  last  I  found  myself  bowing  before  the  King  and 
Queen.  The  King,  who  wore  a  brand  new  uniform,  just 
like  this  one  I  have  on,  beckoned  a  herald  to  his  side. 

"'Now  hark  to  his  words/  he  said  to  me,  'and  say  if  he 
speaks  the  truth/  And  then  the  herald  read  aloud  from  a 
long  white  scroll,  with  scarlet  seals  on  it,  the  story  of  how  I 
had  saved  the  young  chap  from  the  chariot  that  noon,  and 
all  about  the  cabin  boy  and  the  fat  old  banker  I'd  helped 
on  my  way  home  ! 

"'Does  the  herald  speak  truly?'  asked  the  Borderland 
King.  And  alt  the  rest  strained  their  ears  for  my  answer. 

"Sure  pop,  Your  Majesty!'  I  replied  before  I  knew 
what  I  was  saying.  At  that  he  pulled  from  his  finger  a  new 
signet  ring,  inked  it  with  some  magic  ink,  and  motioned  for 
me  to  hold  out  my  right  hand.  How  do  I  know  it  was 
magic  ink?  Why,  it  must  have  been,  for  the  print  it 
made  has  never  faded.  Look  !  " 

Bob  and  Betty  looked  at  the  little 
scout's  right  hand,  which  he  held  up 
again  like  the  crossing  policeman  down- 
town. And  this  is  what  they  saw: 


12          SURE   POP    AND    THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

"'Hold  it  up,'  commanded  the  King,  ' where  all  can 
see ! '  And  then  the  trumpets  sounded  again. 

"'Long  live  Colonel  Sure  Pop,  the  Safety  Scout!'  cried 
the  herald.  The  court  wizard  stepped  forward,  waved  his 
hand  and  mumbled  a  few  magic  words  over  me,  and  —  what 
do  you  think !  —  I  found  myself  dressed  in  a  brand  new 
scouting  uniform,  the  only  one  just  like  the  King's !" 

Long  live  the  Safety  Scouts ! 

—  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER  THREE 

THE   WOMAN  AND   THE   WIZARD 

Sure  Pop,  the  Safety  Scout,  drew  a  long  breath  and 
watched  the  automobiles  whirling  recklessly  down  the  busy 
street.  "But  say,  haven't  you  twins  had  enough  stories 
for  one  day  ?  " 

"  Not  much  we  haven't  !     What  did  the  King  do  next  ?  " 

No  doubt  about  the  twins'  being  thirsty  for  adventure  ! 
Sure  Pop  smiled. 

"  Well,  a  single  wave  of  the  King's  hand  dismissed  his 
people.  Looking  very  sorrowful,  he  opened  the  great  book 
in  which  he  keeps  the  record  of  everything  that  happens 
over  here  in  the  New  World. 

13 


14          SURE   POP   AND   THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

"I  looked  where  he  pointed,  and  trembled.     For  this 
was  what  I  read: 


'  UNITED    STATES    OF   AMERICA 

1  Fathers  and  mothers  and  boys  and  girls  killed  by 

accidents  last  year 

1  Injured,  blinded,  crippled,  and  maimed ' 

"  He  ran  his  finger  across  the  page  to  the  totals,  and  I  saw 
that  the  first  total  ran  clear  up  into  the  thousands  —  and 
the  second  one  into  the  millions! 

"  'Colonel  Sure  Pop/  said  the  King,  'if  only  the  thought 
you  put  into  the  mind  of  that  lad  you  saved  this  noon, 
might  be  put  into  the  mind  of  all  America  ! ' 

"'Your  Majesty  means  —  Safety  First?'  I  asked. 

"The  King  nodded.  'All  the  lives  lost  in  all  our  battles/ 
he  said  grimly,  '  are  but  a  drop  in  the  sea  as  compared  with 
the  slaughter  of  a  single  year  in  a  single  land ! ' 

"'Oh,  Your  Majesty,  let  me  go  and  teach  them  Safety 
First  —  now,  before  another  life  is  thrown  away ! ' 

'"No,  Colonel.  Not  yet.  The  time  is  not  yet  ripe. 
But  —  perhaps  we  can  make  a  beginning.  Come  to  me 
again  tomorrow  night,  at  midnight,  and  we  shall  see.' 

"The  next  night  I  went  to  the  throne  room  and  found  the 
King  studying  a  big  map.  He  had  a  red  pencil  and  a  blue 
one  in  his  hand,  and  he  pointed  to  a  lot  of  red  rings  he  had 
drawn  on  the  map. 


THE   WOMAN   AND   THE   WIZARD  15 

" l  Those/  he  told  me,  '  are  America's  great  mills.  In 
them  and  the  other  factories,  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  workmen  are  killed  by  accident  every  year  —  by  accident, 
Colonel,  not  in  battle. 

"'And  that  is  not  all/  the  King  went  on.  'These  blue 
lines  mark  the  trails  of  the  great  iron  horses  —  the  railroads. 
Last  year  these  iron  horses  trampled  out  thousands  of  lives 
in  America  alone.  And  all  because  the  Americans  haven't 
learned  to  think  Safety ! ' 

"That  was  too  much  for  me.  I  pleaded  with  him  to  let 
me  come  straight  to  America  and  help  end  that  awful  suf- 
fering. But  the  King  shook  his  head. 

"'The  more  haste,  the  less  speed,  Colonel.  Before  you 
can  help  America,  you  must  help  yourself ;  and  the  quickest 
way  to  do  that  is  first  to  teach  Safety  to  our  own  people. 
Let  me  see  you  win  your  spurs  here  in  the  Borderland,  and 
then  —  to  America  you  go  ! ' 

"'Teach  Safety  to  our  own  people?'  I  repeated,  a  bit 
puzzled.  'How  ought  I  to  go  about  it,  Sire?' 

"'Go  through  all  the  Borderland/  said  the  King,  'and 
muster  an  army  of  Safety  Scouts.  Train  them  to  know 
signs  that  spell  DANGER,  as  an  Indian  scout  reads  the  signs 
of  the  trail.  Teach  them  to  report  every  danger  signal 
they  see  —  and  they  will  teach  their  neighbors,  and  so  the 
knowledge  will  spread.  But  above  all,  be  sure  your  Safety 
Scouts  are  well  chosen.' 

'"But  how?'  I  asked.     'Shall  I  pick  out  wise  people?' 


16    SURE  POP  AND  THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

" ' Colonel  of  the  Scouts/  said  the  King,  shrewdly,  'the 
wisest  are  not  always  the  safest.  Have  you  never  thought 
why  it  is  "  bad  luck  to  go  under  a  ladder  "  ? ' 

" '  Never, '  I  owned  up.  'I've  always  thought  of  it  as  just 
a  proverb/ 

"'True.  But  proverbs  without  reason  would  be  like 
trees  without  roots.  Stop  and  think :  sometimes  a  ladder 
breaks  or  slips,  which  is  bad  for  the  climber  —  and  bad  for 
any  one  who  happens  to  be  under  that  ladder  just  then.  And 
sometimes  a  painter's  heavy  paintpot  falls  —  and  woe  to 
him  who  walks  under  the  ladder  then,  be  he  the  wisest  man 
in  the  kingdom.  Now  go,  and  one  moon  from  tonight  bring 
me  a  full  regiment  of  Safety  Scouts.' 

"So  out  through  the  Borderland  I  went,  saying  over  and 
over  to  myself,  'It  is  bad  luck  to  go  under  a  ladder/  and 
waiting  for  the  King's  meaning  to  be  made  plain. 

"First  I  went  to  the  home  of  a  great  wizard,  the  wisest 
man  in  the  Borderland.  As  I  neared  the  house,  the  door 
opened  and  the  wizard  came  out,  a  heavy  book  of  wisdom 
under  his  arm. 

"He  had  a  long  black  pipe  in  his  mouth.  Pulling  out  a 
match,  he  lighted  his  pipe,  threw  the  burning  match  over  his 
shoulder,  and  hurried  on  toward  the  city. 

"I  started  to  run  after  him,  when  a  flicker  of  light  caught 
my  eye.  There  in  the  straw  that  littered  the  roots  of  the 
ivy  vines  by  the  steps,  a  little  tongue  of  flame  was  lapping 
up  the  tangle  of  leaves  I" 


THE   WOMAN   AND    THE   WIZARD  17 

Bob  jumped  to  his  feet  as  if  he  had  heard  the  clang  of 
a  fire  bell.  "  Good  enough  for  him,  the  old  fossil !  Did  it 
burn  his  house  down?" 

"Came  mighty  near  it,"  said  Sure  Pop,  looking  at  the 
scars  on  his  hands.  "He  had  a  sick  wife  in  there  all  alone, 
and  if  I  hadn't  happened  along  just  then  - 

"Well,  anyway,"  he  went  on  cheerfully,  "I  got  the  fire 
out  at  last.     And  the  King's  meaning  was  made  plain  - 
it  is  one  thing  to  have  wisdom  and  another  thing  to  use  it. 
So  I  didn't  ask  the  wizard  to  join  the  Safety  Scouts,  after 
all." 

"  I  should  say  NOT ! "  cried  Bob  and  Betty  with  one  voice. 
"But  where  did  you  find  your  Scouts?"  added  Bob. 

"Well,  the  next  idea  I  had  was  to  ask  mothers,  for  mothers 
give  up  much  of  their  time,  anyhow,  to  keeping  children  out 
of  harm's  way.  I  found  one  whose  house  looked  so  trim 
and  neat,  and  her  children  so  clean  and  happy,  that  I  had 
almost  made  up  my  mind  to  invite  her  to  join  —  when  my 
eye  fell  on  a  shining  butcher  knife  hanging  beside  the  kitchen 
table,  where  even  the  baby  could  reach  it  without  half 
trying. 

"And  that  wasn't  all  I  saw.  There  was  a  saucer  of  fly 
poison  on  the  window  sill !  Then  I  saw  the  mother  starting 
to  carry  out  a  pail  of  water  to  scrub  the  steps,  when 
the  brass  knocker  on  the  door  gave  a  thump,  and  she  left 
that  hot  water  right  there  in  the  middle  of  the  floor  while 
she  talked  to  a  peddler ! 


1 8    SURE  POP  AND  THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"Just  then  the  baby  came  toddling  across  the  room. 
He  got  safely  past  the  scalding  water  and  the  fly  poison,  but 
the  next  moment  I  saw  him  climb  up  on  a  chair,  open  the 
medicine  chest,  and  grab  a  bottle  from  the  bottom  shelf  - 
the  bottom  shelf,  Betty,  of  all  shelves  in  the  house !  Out 
came  the  cork,  and  up  went  the  bottle  to  his  lips,  just  as  I 
saw  to  my  horror  a  skull  and  crossbones  on  its  label.  Like 
a  flash  I—" 

"What's  a  skull  and  crossbones,  Sure  Pop?"  broke  in 
Betty. 

"Poison  sign!"  explained  Bob,  shortly.  "Don't  inter- 
rupt !  Go  on,  Sure  Pop!  " 

"Like  a  flash,"  said  Sure  Pop,  "I  bounded  to  the  baby's 
side  and  snatched  the  bottle  away.  I  tell  you,  I  did  some 
earnest  thinking  as  I  left  that  house.  I  realized  that  it 
would  never  do  to  ask  that  mother  to  join  our  army  of  Safety 
Scouts,  for  until  she  herself  had  formed  the  Safety  habit, 
she  could  hardly  be  expected  to  teach  Safety  to  others. 
The  adventure  of  the  baby  and  the  poison  bottle  had  opened 
my  eyes  to  the  real  meaning  of  the  King's  words  about 
finding  Scouts  who  could  read  the  little  signs  that  spell 
DANGER. 

"By  the  way,  I  told  the  poison  bottle  story  to  a  great 
doctor  the  other  day,  and  now  he's  doing  his  best  to  get  a 
law  passed  requiring  that  all  poison  bottles  be  of  some 
special  shape,  different  from  any  other  bottles.  That  will 
make  them  much  safer,  even  in  the  dark." 


THE   WOMAN   AND    THE   WIZARD  19 

"But  how  can  they  be  made  different  in  shape ?"  asked 
Betty.  "What  shape,  Sure  Pop ? " 

"Three-cornered,  probably.  That  certainly  would  be  a 
life-saving  law,  if  he  could  only  get  it  passed.  Just  think! 
There  were  several  thousand  deaths  in  the  United  States 
last  year  from  that  one  cause  alone  —  just  from  mistaking 
bottles  of  poison  for  other  medicine. " 

"But  what  I  can't  see/'  said  Bob,  "is  how  anybody  could 
mistake  a  poison  bottle.  They  all  have  skulls  and  crossbones 
on  them,  haven't  they?" 

"Stop  and  think  a  moment,"  said  the  Safety  Scout. 
"  Suppose  baby  has  croup  in  the  night,  and  mother  is  roused 
out  of  a  sound  sleep  and  rushes  to  the  medicine  chest ;  she's 
only  half  awake  —  the  light  is  dim  —  poor  baby  is  gasping 
and  choking  —  not  a  moment  to  lose.  She  isn't  likely  to 
stop  and  read  labels  very  carefully,  is  she  ?  But  if  she  felt 
her  hand  close  over  a  three-cornered  bottle,  it  would  wake 
her  up  in  a  hurry.  Even  in  the  darkness  and  in  the  excite- 
ment —  if  she  had  been  trained  to  think  of  a  three-cornered 
bottle  as  meaning  DANGER,  perhaps  death  —  it  would 
stay  her  hand  as  surely  as  a  red  light  stops  an  engine." 

"I  suppose,"  said  Betty,  "that  when  folks  are  badly 
hurt,  or  awfully,  awfully  sick,  other  folks  lose  their  heads 
and  don't  know  what  they  really  are  doing." 

"Betty,  you've  hit  the  nail  right  on  the  head.  Now 
that's  why  we  must  fix  things  so  safety  won't  depend  on 
level  heads  or  time  to  think.  The  danger  signal  must  pop 


20          SURE   POP  AND   THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

right  into  our  heads  from  force  of  habit.  The  sooner  Ameri- 
can boys  and  girls  —  yes,  and  the  grown-ups,  too  —  get  the 
Safety  habit,  the  sooner  'Safety  First'  will  change  from 
phrase  into  fact. 

"The  first  day  I  ever  spent  in  America  opened  my  eyes 
to  the  price  your  country  is  paying  for  the  word  'guess.' 
The  more  I  studied  the  situation,  the  oftener  I  noticed  folks 
saying  '  I  guess '  where  they  should  have  said  '  /  know. '  In 
nearly  all  of  America's  accidents,  guesswork  is  the  real 
cause. 

"The  moment  I  realized  that,  I  said  to  myself,  'It's  high 
time  America  dropped  guesswork  out  of  its  daily  life.'  My 
work  was  cut  out  for  me  :  I  began  right  then  and  there  to 
study  out  ways  of  getting  folks  to  stop  guessing,  once  for  all, 
and  be  sure  —  sure  pop  !" 

Stop  guessing,  once  for  all,  and  be  sure. 

—  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER   FOUR 

THE   PERSISTENT   PIGMY 

"Say,  Sure  Pop!"  burst  out  Bob,  as  the  Safety  Scout 
paused  in  his  story.  "  A  whole  regiment  —  did  you  realize 
that  was  a  lot  of  Scouts  to  get  together  in  one  month?" 

"Did  I?"  echoed  Sure  Pop  with  a  chuckle.  "Did  I? 
Well,  if  I  didn't  when  I  set  out  on  my  search,  I  did  before 
the  first  day  was  over.  I  had  lost  out  on  the  wisest  man  in 
the  Borderland  —  he  wouldn't  do,  for  all  his  wisdom.  He 
only  served  to  remind  me  of  what  the  King  had  said,  that 
the  wisest  are  not  always  the  safest." 

"Sure  —  sure  pop!"  Bob  broke  in  again.  "But  how 
did  you  ever  get  a  whole  regiment  together  in  one  month? 
You  simply  couldn't  disappoint  the  King,  you  know." 


21 


22          SURE   POP   AND   THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

"  You're  right,  Bob,  I  simply  couldn't.  So  as  fast  as  I  did 
find  one  that  would  do  for  the  army,  I  set  him  to  work  rind- 
ing others  —  passing  the  good  work  along.  I  soon  saw  I 
could  never  make  good  with  the  King  by  trying  to  do  it 
all  myself,  and  I  do  believe  the  King  knew  all  along  that 
there  was  only  one  way  a  really  big  work  could  be  done  - 
by  getting  everybody  stirred  up  and  enthusiastic.  So  I 
turned  each  new  Scout  loose  to  hunt  for  more. 

"  You'd  laugh  to  know  who  was  the  first  Scout  enrolled. 
As  I  slipped  out  of  the  poison-bottle  house,  I  saw  a  funny 
little  pigmy  hurry  out  of  a  cottage  across  the  lane  and  go 
z-z-zam !  down  the  front  steps.  We'd  had  a  nip  of  frost  the 
night  before,  and  the  slippery  steps  took  him  by  surprise. 
For  a  moment  he  stood  rubbing  his  head,  with  his  merry  little 
face  puckered  up  into  a  comical  sort  of  bowknot.  Then  he 
picked  his  way  slowly  up  the  steps  into  the  house. 

"A  minute  or  two  and  out  he  came  again  with  a  bag  of 
salt  and  sprinkled  the  steps  with  it.  Though  he  was  in 
just  as  big  a  hurry  as  our  friend  the  wizard,  the  Safety 
First  idea  had  got  him,  and  he  plainly  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  begin  right  then  and  there. 

"'Well,  I  declare!'  I  said  to  myself.  'I've  a  notion  to 
muster  him  into  the  scouting  service  —  but  what  would  the 
King  say  to  my  enrolling  a  pigmy  ? '  Just  as  I  was  wonder- 
ing about  it,  down  he  went  again,  flat  on  his  little  back ! 

"This  time  it  was  on  the  sidewalk  in  front  of  his  house. 
Some  careless  youngster  had  thrown  a  banana  skin  on  the 


THE   PERSISTENT   PIGMY  23 

walk.  Poor  little  pigmy,  what  a  bump  he  did  get  that 
time !  But  again  he  picked  himself  up,  and  this  time  he 
didn't  wait  a  moment  —  just  poked  the  banana  skin  off  into 
the  gutter  where  it  could  do  no  more  harm. 

"  Such  persistence  was  too  much  for  me !  I  told  him  the 
King  wanted  him  for  the  royal  army  of  Safety  Scouts,  and 
that  he  was  to  have  the  honor  of  being  the  first  one  enrolled. 
His  eyes  fairly  popped  out  of  his  head  as  he  listened,  and 
before  you  could  say  '  Jack  Robinson/  he 
had  scampered  off  to  help  me  raise  an 
army  —  with  one  of  these  buttons  in  the 
lapel  of  his  leather  jerkin." 

Sure  Pop  pulled  a  sparkling  button  out 
of  his  pocket  and  laid  it  before  the  twins. 

"There,  that's  the  Safety  Scouts'  badge  of  honor,  and  no 
Scout  can  wear  one  till  he  earns  the  right.  The  King  him- 
self designed  it." 

"My!  I  wish  — !"  The  twins  remembered  their  man- 
ners and  stopped  short,  but  Sure  Pop  understood.  He  threw 
back  that  wise  little  head  and  how  he  did  laugh ! 

"You  wish  —  eh?  That's  what  they  all  say,  the  minute 
they  lay  eyes  on  that  button !  You  see,  that's  a  magic 
button,  so  it's  no  wonder  everybody  wants  one.  Friends, 
that  button  can  talk!  " 

Bob  stared  at  the  button  as  if  he  couldn't  believe  his 
ears.  Betty,  taking  Sure  Pop  at  his  word,  grabbed  the 
button  and  laid  it  to  her  ear.  She  gave  a  squeal  of  delight. 


24          SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"It  does!     It  does  talk  — doesn't  it?"  she  cried. 

"Sure  pop  it  does !"  laughed  the  Safety  Scout.  "That's 
all  it  can  say,  just  four  words  at  a  time  —  but  those  four 
are  enough  to  save  thousands  of  lives  every  year." 

"What  four  words?"  yelled  Bob,  clapping  the  magic 
button  to  his  ear.  How  his  jaw  dropped  when  he  heard 
—  or  seemed  to  hear  —  the  magic  button's  words,  four 
words  he  will  never,  never  forget,  even  if  he  lives  to  be  a 
hundred  years  old  ! 

"Safety  First"  whispered  the  magic  button  in  his  ear. 
"Get  Busy!" 

Bob  sprang  to  his  feet,  so  startled  that  he  nearly  dropped 
the  button. 

"  Get  busy  ?  "  Jie  echoed.     "  Well,  let's ! " 

"And  let's  be  quick  about  it,"  chimed  in  Betty.  "I 
want  to  earn  one  of  those  magic  buttons  myself." 

"Here  too!"  Bob  whirled  around  to  Sure  Pop.  "But 
we'll  have  to  get  the  soil  ready  first,  won't  we,  just  as  the 
King  told  you?  So  the  seed  won't  be  wasted,  you  know." 

"That's  the  first  move,  Bob.  Waste  is  something  no 
Scout  can  bear  to  see.  Waste  of  life,  waste  of  health,  waste 
of  time,  waste  of  food  —  even  waste  of  money  seems  a  crime 
to  a  Safety  Scout." 

Betty  was  thinking  hard.  "  Then  before  we  can  plant  the 
Safety  First  idea  in  other  people's  minds,  shan't  we  have  to 
start  it  growing  in  our  own,  Sure  Pop?" 

"  Sure  pop,  we  shall !    And  now  listen,  friends.     When  I 


THE   PERSISTENT   PIGMY  25 

first  came  to  America,  after  years  of  Safety  training  among 
my  own  people,  I  took  up  the  task  of  planting  the  Safety 
First  idea  among  the  great  American  mills  and  factories. 
Some  day  I'll  tell  you  about  those  years  of  Safety  work 
among  the  mill  hands,  but  just  now  what  I  want  to  explain 
is  this :  when  I  had  got  the  work  well  established  among 
the  mills,  I  thought  at  first  that  my  work  in  America  was 
finished;  but  the  more  I  thought  it  over,  the  plainer  it  be- 
came that  my  most  important  work  still  lay  before  me." 

"Your  most  important  work,"  echoed  Betty.  "What 
do  you  mean,  Sure  Pop  —  teaching  Safety  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States?" 

"No,  Betty.  A  far  more  important  work  than  that — • 
teaching  Safety  to  children.  I  saw  that  by  making  Safety 
Scouts  out  of  the  boys  and  girls,  I  should  be  solving  the 
whole  problem  of  the  years  to  come  —  for  workmen,  Presi- 
dents, and  all.  So  I  drew  a  long  breath  and  started  in  again, 
this  time  in  America's  homes. 

"  Now  how  do  you  suppose  I  came  to  choose  your  home 
to  begin  on  ?  Just  as  I  was  wondering  which  house  to  tackle 
first,  I  overheard  Bob  wishing  he  had  Uncle  Jack's  life  of 
adventure  —  though  the  United  States  has  more  real  adven- 
ture to  the  square  mile  than  all  South  America  put  together ! " 

"You  don't  mean  it?    Why,  this  is  a  civilized  country !" 

"You  Americans  think  so,  Bob.  And  you're  trying  to 
bring  about  world-wide  peace,  because  you  feel  that  war  is 
out  of  place  in  civilized  life.  But  what  about  the  thousands 


26          SURE    POP  AND   THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

you  kill  and  the  millions  you  wound  every  year?  More 
than  you  killed  and  wounded,  remember,  in  the  whole  Civil 
War.  .  What  about  that  ?  Does  that  sound  so  very  civilized  ? 

"You  want  adventure.     Good!    You  shall  have  it - 
early  and  often.     And  you  won't  have  to  go  to  any  other 
country  to  find  it,  either/' 

" Well,"  said  Bob,  "here's  hoping.     What  comes  first ? " 

"First,  we  must  get  our  eyes  and  ears  open.  That's  the 
first  thing  for  any  Scout  to  learn,  and  he  isn't  good  for 
much  until  he  gets  the  habit  of  noticing  things.  Scout-craft 
means  reading  signs  in  everything  you  come  across  and 
acting  on  little  silent  hints  that  most  folks  wouldn't  notice. 

"Now,  to  begin  with,  here  are  three  practical  rules  for 
you  to  bear  in  mind  —  three  things  we  found  out  in  our 
first  year  of  Borderland  Safety  Scouting :  First,  a  true  Scout 
is  always  on  the  alert.  Second,  a  Scout  always  keeps  cool. 
Third,  a  Scout  does  one  thing  at  a  time.  Do  you  suppose 
you  can  remember  these  three  things?" 

"That's  easy,"  said  Betty. 

"Easy  as  anything,"  said  Bob.  "Keep  wide  awake,  keep 
cool,  and  keep  your  mind  on  one  thing  at  a  time.  Three 
'keeps'  -  -  anybody  can  remember  them !" 

"Think  so?"  Sure  Pop's  voice  sounded  surprisingly  far 
away.  "All  right,  we'll  see !"  And  before  the  twins'  very 
eyes  he  faded  away  into  thin  air ! 

A  trzte  Scout  is  always  on  the  alert.  —  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE   NUMBER   FIVE 

THE   MAGIC   BUTTON'S   WARNING 

"He's  gone!"  Bob  and  Betty  stared  at  each  other. 
For  a  moment  the  whole  thing  seemed  like  a  dream,  and 
they  hated  to  think  of  waking  up. 

"But  it  was  real!"  Bob  turned  the  magic  button  over 
and  over  in  his  hand,  glad  to  have  something  left  to  prove 
the  reality  of  their  new  friend,  something  they  could  still  see 
and  touch. 

"We  can't  wear  that  button,  though,"  Betty  reminded 
him.  "  We've  got  to  earn  it  first.  What  shall  we  do  with  it  ?  " 

Bob  stuck  it  into  his  deepest  pocket.  "I'll  hang  on  to 
it  till  Sure  Pop  comes  back  —  if  he  does  come  back.  Oh, 
hello,  Joe!" 

27 


28          SURE   POP   AND    THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

Joe  Schmidt,  a  wiry  boy  of  Bob's  own  age,  but  fully  half 
a  head  shorter,  turned  around  and  gazed  up  at  the  Daltons' 
porch. 

"  Why,  hello,  Bob !    What  are  you  doing  ?  " 

"Nothing."  Bob  ran  down  the  steps  and  began  talking 
with  Joe.  In  fact,  the  two  lads  were  so  busy  talking  that 
they  did  not  see  George  Gibson  till  he  purposely  bumped 
into  Joe's  back  with  a  sudden  "Hey,  there!  Get  off  the 
walk!" 

Joe  bristled  like  a  ruffled  sparrow.  "Let's  see  you  throw 
me  off!"  When  George  good-naturedly  took  him  at  his 
word,  Joe  clinched  with  him  and  managed  to  get  a  half- 
Nelson  hold  on  him.  Joe  always  went  at  things  in  dead 
earnest,  anyway.  Bob  and  Betty,  laughing  and  shouting, 
hopped  gleefully  around  the  swaying  wrestlers,  Bob 
yelling  encouragement  to  George,  and  Betty  yelling  just 
as  hard  for  Joe. 

Suddenly  —  was  it  just  Bob's  imagination?  —  something 
seemed  to  give  a  wiggle  in  his  pocket  —  then  a  warning 
flop.  It  must  be  that  magic  button  ! 

Bob  jumped,  gave  a  snort  of  surprise,  and  jammed  his 
hand  into  his  pocket.  What  had  got  into  the  button  any- 
way? 

Then  an  idea  flashed  across  his  mind  —  perhaps  the 
Safety  button  was  trying  to  warn  him.  To  be  sure,  if  the 
wrestlers  went  down  hard  on  the  cement  sidewalk,  it  might 
mean  a  broken  skull !  In  his  hurry  to  get  them  off  the  walk 


THE    MAGIC   BUTTON'S   WARNING  29 

and  over  on  the  grass,  Bob  lost  his  head.  He  made  the  mis- 
take of  trying  to  do  it  by  force ;  he  caught  hold  of  George's 
elbow,  and  got  a  sharp  dig  in  the  pit  of  his  stomach  for 
his  pains. 

"Hey,  fellows  —  danger!"  he  yelled,  when  he  could 
catch  his  breath.  "Get  over  on  the  grass  —  look  out!" 

His  warnings  came  too  late.  George,  much  the  bigger 
of  the  two,  got  a  hip-lock  on  Joe,  and,  forgetting  everything 
else  in  his  struggle  to  "lay  him  out,"  gave  a  sudden  heave 
that  sent  Joe  sprawling  on  his  back.  His  head  struck 
the  sidewalk  with  a  thud.  „  ; 

That  was  all.     Joe  lay  like  a  lump  of  lead. 

"He's  dead!"  screamed  Betty  wildly.  She  threw  herself 
at  the  gasping  George.  "You  —  you've  killed  him!" 

George,  puffing  and  blowing  from  his  struggle,  held  her 
at  arm's  length.  A  big  policeman  suddenly  came  around 
the  corner.  "Here,  what's  all  this?"  he  asked  sternly, 
bending  over  the  fallen  wrestler. 

"He  struck  on  the  back  of  his  head,"  spoke  up  Bob. 
"They  were  wrestling  —  just  in  fun,  you  know  —  and  Joe 
struck  his  head  on  the  sidewalk.  Is  —  is  he  dead?" 

"Small  thanks  to  you  young  rascals  if  he  isn't,"  growled 
the  officer.  "Crazy  Indians,  wrestling  on  a  cement  walk! 
Where  does  he  live?" 

He  lifted  the  limp  body  in  his  arms  and  hurried  to  the 
Widow  Schmidt's  modest  little  cottage  with  the  green  blinds 
and  the  neatly  scrubbed  doorstep.  George  and  Bob,  feel- 


30          SURE   POP   AND   THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

ing  very  sick,  trailed  sadly  along  after  him ;  they  hated  to 
think  of  the  look  that  would  come  into  the  Widow  Schmidt's 
motherly  face.  Joe  was  all  she  had  in  the  world. 

Betty,  womanlike,  was  first  to  think  of  the  doctor.  Al- 
most before  the  policeman  had  reached  Joe's  side,  she  was 
running  to  the  corner  drug  store  as  fast  as  her  feet  would 
carry  her.  The  druggist  would  know  where  to  reach  a 
doctor  with  the  least  delay  —  she  could  telephone. 

It  seemed  ages  before  the  fluttering  lids  opened  and  Joe's 
black  eyes  looked  out  on  the  world  again.  "No  bones 
broken,"  said  the  doctor  at  last.  "Half  an  inch  farther  to 
the  right  or  left,  though  - 

He  stopped,  but  the  twins  understood.  Silently  they 
gripped  Joe's  hand  as  it  lay  helpless  on  the  bed,  nodded  to 
George,  and  the  three  tip- toed  out  of  the  hushed  little  room. 

That  night,  before  Bob  and  Betty  went  to  bed,  Sure  Pop 
came  back.  He  found  the  twins  sitting  with  their  heads 
together,  studying  Bob's  Handbook  of  Scout-Craft  as  if  their 
lives  depended  on  learning  it  by  heart  in  one  evening.  Bob 
still  lacked  a  few  months  of  being  old  enough  to  join  the 
Boy  Scouts ;  he  had  long  looked  forward  to  his  coming 
birthday,  but  it  had  never  meant  so  much  to  him  as  now. 

Sure  Pop  nodded  and  smiled  as  he  saw  the  familiar  hand- 
book. "Good  work!"  he  said.  "All  true  Scouts  are 
brothers,  you  know.  Well,  how  about  the  ' three  keeps' 
of  the  Scout  Law?  Did  you  find  them  as  easy  as  you 
thought ?" 


THE  MAGIC   BUTTON'S   WARNING  31 

Bob  and  Betty  grew  very  red.  They  did  not  know  what 
to  say. 

The  Safety  Scout  saved  them  the  trouble.  "Joe's  better 
tonight,"  he  told  them,  comfortingly.  "  I've  just  come  from 
there,  and  the  doctor  says  he'll  be  up  again  in  a  day 
or  so.  What  shall  we  do  tomorrow,  friends  —  begin  hunt- 
ing for  adventure  and  planting  Safety  First  ideas?" 

Bob  looked  at  Betty  and  swallowed  hard  at  a  lump  in 
his  throat.  Somehow  this  wise  little  Sure  Pop  knew  every- 
thing that  happened ! 

"I  think,"  said  Bob,  frankly,  "we  really  planted  one  to- 
day!" 

All  true  Scouts  are  brothers. 

—  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER  SIX 

THE   LIVE   WIRE 

Sure  Pop  saw,  the  moment  he  laid  eyes  on  Bob  and  Betty 
next  morning,  that  they  had  made  up  their  minds  to  earn 
a  magic  button  apiece  that  day. 

" Where  shall  we  go  for  today's  adventure?"  was  the  first 
question. 

The  Safety  Scout  laughed.  "We  probably  shan't  have 
to  go  far.  Once  a  Scout's  eyes  are  really  open,  so  that 
danger  signs  other  folks  wouldn't  notice  begin  to  mean  some- 
thing to  him,  why,  adventure  walks  right  up  to  him. 
It  walked  right  up  to  you  two  yesterday,  but  you  didn't 
read  the  signs  till  too  late.  Being  a  Scout,  remember, 
means  doing  the  right  thing  at  the  right  moment.  Now 

32 


THE  LIVE    WIRE  33 

let's  start  out  and  walk  a  few  blocks,  and  see  what  danger 
signals  we  come  across  that  other  folks  are  overlooking." 

Just  as  they  opened  the  gate,  Mrs.  Dalton  came  to  the 
door.  "Bob!  Come  here  a  moment,  please.  I  want  you 
to  take  a  note  over  to  Mrs.  Hoffman's  for  me.  Their  tele- 
phone is  out  of  order." 

She  lowered  her  voice  as  she  handed  him  the  letter,  and 
added,  "Who  is  that  out  there  with  Betty?" 

"Oh,  that's  one  of  the  Scouts.  We're  going  out  for  a 
little  practice  scouting." 

Mrs.  Dalton  knew  how  eagerly  Bob  had  been  awaiting 
the  day  when  he  could  become  a  Boy  Scout.  She  trusted 
the  Scouts  and  was  glad  to  have  Bob  and  Betty  spend  their 
vacation  time  in  scouting.  She  little  guessed  that  the  three 
friends  were  to  start  an  order  of  Safety  Scouts  which  even 
fathers  and  mothers  would  join. 

Bob  hurried  back  to  Betty  and  Sure  Pop.  "Can  you 
wait  while  I  run  over  to  Mrs.  Hoffman's  with  this?  All 
right,  I'll  be  back  in  no  time !" 

Hurrying  though  he  was,  he  looked  both  ways  before  he 
crossed  the  car  tracks,  for  already  the  habit  of  "thinking 
Safety"  was  growing  on  him.  He  reached  Mrs.  Hoffman's 
in  record  time,  delivered  the  note,  and  raced  back  toward 
home. 

As  he  slowed  down  to  catch  his  breath,  he  met  a  crowd 
of  yelling  youngsters  "playing  Indians."  Several  of  them 
wore  Indian  suits.  One,  dressed  as  a  cowboy,  tried  to  rope 


34          SURE   POP   AND    THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

him  as  he  passed.  This  gave  the  Indians  an  idea,  and  they 
came  howling  after  Bob,  waving  their  tomahawks  and 
promising  to  scalp  him.  Two  yelping  dogs  joined  in  the 
chase. 

Bob  grinned  and  broke  into  a  long,  easy  run  which  soon 
shook  the  redskins  off  his  trail.  But  at  a  sudden  delighted 
whoop  from  the  enemy  he  stopped  and  looked  back. 

"Hi-yi!"  yelled  the  biggest  Indian.  "Look  at  that 
telephone  wire  on  the  ground !  Come  on,  let's  chop  it  off 
and  use  it  to  bind  the  palefaces  to  the  stake. " 

Pellmell  across  the  street  swarmed  the  little  fellows,  each 
bound  to  get  there  first.  But  Bob  was  too  quick  for  them. 
Hatless,  breathless,  he  threw  himself  between  the  Indians 
and  the  swaying  wire.  "Get  back!"  he  roared.  "That's 
no  telephone  wire  —  it's  alive  !  Keep  back,  I  say !  You'll 
be  killed!" 

It  was  no  easy  thing  to  stand  between  the  youngsters 
and  the  deadly  wire.  They  were  laughing  and  yelling  so 
hard,  and  the  dogs  were  barking  so  wildly,  that  at  first  Bob 
couldn't  get  the  idea  of  danger  into  their  heads.  He  fairly 
had  to  knock  two  or  three  of  them  down  to  keep  them  from 
hacking  at  the  wire  with  their  hatchets.  Would  they 
never  understand?  "I  won't  forget  this  time,  anyway!" 
muttered  the  boy,  gritting  his  teeth  as  he  remembered  the 
"three  keeps"  of  the  Scout  Law. 

Up  ran  one  of  the  dogs,  capering  around  with  sharp,  ear- 
splitting  barks,  and  tried  to  get  his  teeth  into  Bob's  ankle. 


THE   LIVE   WIRE  35 

When  Bob  tried  to  kick  him  away,  of  course  the  Indians  and 
cowboys  yelled  harder  than  ever.  The  dog  stumbled  and 
fell  across  the  electric  wire  —  gave  one  wild  yelp  of  pain 
-and  lay  there  kicking  and  struggling,  unable  to  jerk 
himself  loose.  Worst  of  all,  he  had  landed  in  a  puddle  of 
water,  so  that  the  electric  current  was  pouring  straight 
through  his  twitching  body  into  the  wet  earth. 

At  last  Bob  managed  to  drive  all  the  boys  back  out  of 
harm's  way,  only  to  see  one  of  the  cowboys  rush  for  the  dog 
with  a  cry  that  tore  at  Bob's  heartstrings. 

"It's  Tige!  Oh,  Tige!  — poor  old  Tige !  Let  me  go! 
I've  got  to  save  my  dog !" 

Bob  had  grabbed  the  little  fellow  and  held  him  tight. 
"Too  late,  old  scout,"  he  said,  with  tears  in  his  own  eyes  as 
he  saw  the  dog  kicking  his  last.  "  Tige's  done  for,  I'm  afraid. 
Keep  back,  there  —  that  wire  will  get  you  too  !"  For  the 
boys  were  crowding  nearer  again. 

"Who  has  a  telephone  at  home?"  asked  Bob. 

"We  have,"  said  one  of  the  larger  boys. 

"Then  run  home  quick,  call  up  the  Electric  Light  Com- 
pany, and  have  them  send  their  repair  crew.  Tell  them  a 
live  wire  has  killed  Tige  and  may  kill  the  boys  if  they  don't 
hurry.  Tell  'em  it's  at  the  corner  of  Broad  Street  and 
Center  Avenue.  Run  ! " 

While  he  waited  for  the  repair  wagon,  Bob  managed  to 
get  the  boys  lined  up  in  all  directions,  where  they  could 
mount  guard  over  the  danger  zone.  Then  he  stood  guard 


36          SURE   POP   AND   THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

with  the  rest,  and  they  succeeded  in  keeping  all  teams  and 
passers-by  from  running  into  danger  till  the  repair  men 
came. 

It  seemed  a  long  while  before  the  clatter  of  hoofs  and  the 
rumble  of  heavy  wheels  told  him  the  rescue  party  was  com- 
ing at  last.  He  jumped  with  surprise  when  the  repair 
wagon  dashed  around  the  corner  and  pulled  up  beside  the 
curb,  for  there  beside  the  driver  sat  Sure  Pop,  the  Safety 
Scout !  Puzzled  by  Bob's  long  stay  and  hearing  the 
gong  as  the  wagon  hurried  up,  he  had  decided  to  come 
along. 

Ten  minutes  later  the  live  wire  was  back  in  place,  the 
repair  crew  had  clattered  off  again,  and  a  little  band  of 
mourning  Indians  and  cowboys  had  carried  poor  Tige's 
body  over  to  his  master's  back  yard,  where  they  buried  him 
after  a  solemn  funeral  service.  Only  a  dog  —  but  the  tears 
they  dropped  on  his  little  grave  were  very  real  and  sincere, 
for  he  had  been  a  jolly  playmate  and  a  loyal  friend. 

Bob  was  very  sober  as  he  walked  home  with  Sure  Pop. 
''Wish  I  could  have  saved  Tige,  somehow!" 

The  Safety  Scout  laid  his  hand  on  the  boy's  shoulder. 
"Bob,  you  did  just  right.  You  remembered  the  i three 
keeps '  this  time  —  you  kept  wide  awake,  kept  cool,  and  kept 
your  mind  on  one  thing  at  a  time.  No  Scout  could  have 
done  more.  If  you  had  risked  touching  that  wire,  it  would 
have  cost  a  good  deal  more  than  the  life  of  a  dog,  I  fear. 
It's  important  to  know  what  not  to  do,  sometimes.  Robert 


THE  LIVE   WIRE 


37 


Dalton,  I'm  proud  of  you  !  Here  —  you've  earned  it  this 
time,  sure  pop!" 

He  reached  down  into  his  pocket,  pulled  out  the  Safety 
button,  and  fastened  it  in  Bob's  coat  lapel.  The  boy  flushed 
with  pride  as  he  lifted  the  magic  button  to  his  ear.  And 
never  had  words  thrilled  him  more  than  those  which  greeted 
him  now  —  for  two  of  them  were  new  words  which  his  own 
quick  wits  had  earned  : 

"Safety  First!"  whispered  the  button,  clear  and  sweet 
as  a  far-away  bugle  call.  "Good  Work  /" 

Safety  first  -  -  not  part  of  the  time,  but  all  the 

time.  — SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE   NUMBER   SEVEN 

BETTY    EVENS    THE    SCORE 

All  through  supper  time  Betty  schemed  and  plotted. 

"I  certainly  am  proud  of  the  way  Bob  won  his,"  she  said 
to  herself.  "But  I've  never  been  behind  Bob  yet,  and  that 
magic  button's  going  to  be  twins  before  tomorrow  night, 
somehow!" 

The  hot  summer  sun  woke  her  early  next  morning,  and 
she  hurried  downstairs  to  be  through  breakfast  before  Sure 
Pop  came  for  the  day's  adventures. 

"Where  do  we  go  today?"  she  asked  Sure  Pop  an  hour 
later,  dancing  up  and  down  and  looking  wistfully  at  Bob's 
new  Safety  button. 

"Sorry,  friends,"  said  the  Safety  Scout,  "but  I  can't  be 

38 


BETTY   EVENS   THE   SCORE  39 

with  you  today.  I'm  due  for  a  little  outside  scouting  duty 
-  something  you  twins  aren't  quite  ready  for  yet." 

"Oh,  say!"  Bob's  face  fell.  "What  are  we  going  to 
do  then,  all  day  alone?" 

"Do?"  laughed  the  merry  Colonel,  waving  them  goodby. 
"Why,  you'll  be  out  scouring  the  neighborhood  for  new 
adventures,  I  fancy.  And  as  for  Betty,  if  I'm  any  mind 
reader,  she  has  something  up  her  sleeve  sure  enough!" 

Sure  Pop  was  right,  as  usual.  Bob  fussed  around  the  yard 
awhile,  managed  to  open  a  box  of  crockery  out  on  the  back 
steps  for  Mother,  and  soon  rambled  off  to  see  what  new  ad- 
ventures he  could  find  in  the  name  of  Safety  First. 

Betty  spent  most  of  the  morning  in  the  kitchen,  helping 
Mother.  As  soon  as  Bob  was  off  again  after  lunch,  she 
began  to  roam  about  the  yard,  eyeing  everything  like  a 
hawk.  Soon  Mother  saw  her  picking  up  the  boards  Bob 
had  pried  loose  from  the  box  and  scowling  at  the  ugly  nails 
that  stuck  up  where  little  feet  might  so  easily  be  stabbed 
by  their  rusty  points.  These  she  carefully  bent  down  with 
a  big  stone. 

"That's  one  on  Bob,  anyway,"  said  Betty  to  herself,  and 
went  on  looking  around  the  yard. 

Her  eye  roved  upward  to  the  bright  geraniums  on  the 
sill  of  Mother's  window  upstairs.  "Mother,"  she  called, 
"have  you  ever  read  Ben  Hur  ?  " 

"Why,  yes,  Betty  —  a  long  time  ago.     Why?" 

"Don't  you  remember  how  that  loose  tile  from  Ben  Hur's 


40          SURE   POP   AND   THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

roof  —  the  one  he  tried  to  snatch  back  as  he  saw  it  fall  — • 
struck  the  Roman  soldier  on  the  head,  and  how  Ben  Hur 
went  to  prison  for  it?  Well,  what  about  those  flower  pots 
up  there?" 

"Why,  Betty!"  cried  her  mother,  more  puzzled  than 
ever.  "Ben  Hur  —  flower  pots  —  what  is  the  dear  child 
talking  about?" 

Betty  laughed.  "  I  read  in  the  paper  last  night  that  one  of 
the  big  hotels  has  put  up  signs  in  every  room,  and  they  say : 

PATRONS  —ATTENTION 

Please  do  not  place  articles  of  any  kind  ON 
WINDOW  SILL  (bottles  and  chinaware  most 
dangerous).  They  may  fall  or  be  blown  into 
the  street,  causing  serious  if  not  fatal  accidents. 

"That's  because  a  flower  pot  fell  from  an  upper  window 
on  a  woman's  head.  Baby's  sand  pile  is  right  below  your 
window,  and  one  of  the  flower  pots  might  fall  while  she  was 
out  there  playing.  A  sudden  draft  could  do  it,  or  a  door 
slammed  hard.  Do  you  mind  if  I  fasten  them  on  with 
wire  so  they  can't  fall?  Then  I'll  do  it  right  now  before 
anything  happens !" 

She  had  just  finished  the  job  to  her  satisfaction,  and  was 
looking  about  for  something  else,,  when  Mother  called 
softly:  "Betty,  if  you'll  keep  a  lookout  and  let  me  know 
if  anybody  comes,  or  if  Baby  wakes  up,  I'll  take  a  nap." 


BETTY  EVENS  THE  SCORE         41 

Betty  was  pleased.  Here  was  a  fine  chance  to  play  house- 
keeper. Mother  left  a  soup  bone  simmering  over  one 
burner  of  the  gas  stove,  and  a  steam  pudding  bubbling 
away  over  another,  and  went  upstairs  for  her  nap. 

Betty  tiptoed  to  the  little  sewing-room,  next  to  the 
kitchen,  and  looked  in.  Baby  was  sleeping.  Then  she  softly 
shut  the  kitchen  door  and  sat  down  in  the  dining-room  to 
read.  Suddenly  a  shower  came  up,  and  out  she  ran  to 
close  the  windows  in  the  kitchen  and  the  sewing-room, 
where  the  rain  was  pouring  in. 

She  had  hardly  begun  reading  again  when  she  heard  Bob 
clatter  up  the  back  steps,  tear  through  the  kitchen  in 
search  of  his  raincoat,  and  hurry  out  again.  The  wind 
was  blowing  hard  and  swept  through  the  open  kitchen, 
banging  the  dustpan  against  the  wall  like  a  fire  alarm  gong. 

Betty  read  on.  Presently  she  looked  at  the  clock  and 
sprang  to  her  feet.  "Why,  how  long  Baby  is  sleeping 
today !  'Most  three  hours  and  never  a  peep.  I  wonder  — " 

A  faint  whiff  of  gas  from  the  kitchen  made  her  turn  pale 
with  dread.  Then  it  flashed  into  her  mind  what  must 
have  happened  —  that  sudden  gust  of  wind  had  blown  out 
the  gas !  As  she  ran  to  the  kitchen,  she  realized  that  she 
had  caught  the  same  faint  smell  several  times  before. 
"Oh!"  she  sobbed,  "what  if  Baby— " 

Mother,  sound  asleep  upstairs,  was  roused  by  a  crash 
from  the  kitchen,  a  shriek  from  Betty,  and  the  sound  of  a 
shattered  window-pane ;  for  Betty,  finding  that  the  outside 


42          SURE   POP   AND   THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

door  stuck  fast,  had  hurled  a  frying-pan  through  the  window. 
Then  she  ran  to  the  sewing-room  as  the  life-giving  breeze 
poured  in  through  the  broken  pane. 

Startled,  bewildered,  still  only  half  awake,  Mother  stum- 
bled to  the  kitchen  and  found  Betty,  with  the  unconscious 
baby  in  her  arms,  groping  her  way  toward  the  dining-room. 
Snatching  them  both  up  and  rushing  toward  the  open  air, 
Mother  landed  in  a  heap  on  the  front  porch,  Betty  and  the 
baby  on  top  of  her.  And  then  —  oh,  glorious  sound  !  — • 
came  a  feeble  little  cry  from  Baby,  and  they  knew  she  was 
safe  after  all !  There  Father  and  Bob  found  them  a  few 
minutes  later,  laughing  and  crying  and  hugging  each  other 
by  turns.  Betty's  quick  wits  had  saved  the  day. 

Mother  was  telling  the  whole  story  that  evening,  not  for- 
getting the  rusty  nails  and  the  flower  pots  —  two  risks  which 
neither  Father  nor  Mother  had  ever  thought  of  before  - 
when  a  sturdy  little  figure  in  a  Safety  Scout  uniform  paused 
at  the  door  and  listened  with  a  shrewd  twinkle  in  his  eye. 

It  was  Sure  Pop,  who  had  looked  in  to  say  good  night 
to  the  twins.  He  caught  Betty's  eye,  beckoned  her  into 
the  hall  —  and  when  she  came  back  to  the  supper  table, 
Bob's  sharp  eye  caught  the  gleam  of  a  Safety  First  button 
over  her  heart,  too. 

Betty  had  evened  the  score  ! 

Safety  scouting  begins  at  home. 

—  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER   EIGHT 

LITTLE  SCHNEIDER'S  FIRE  ALARM 

Ever  since  the  twins  had  earned  their  Safety  First  but- 
tons, they  had  been  looking  forward  to  the  Fourth  of  July, 
and  on  the  eve  of  the  Fourth  came  an  adventure  far  more 
exciting  than  any  they  had  expected. 

The  lights  were  out  in  Bob's  and  Betty's  rooms,  and  Bob 
had  just  dropped  off  to  sleep  when  the  clang  of  the  fire  bell 
brought  him  out  of  bed  in  a  hurry. 

As  his  feet  struck  the  floor,  his  ear  caught  the  rattle  of 
gravel  on  the  window.  The  room  was  half  lighted  by  a 
ruddy  glow,  and  looking  out  he  saw  Sure  Pop  standing  be- 
low his  window. 

43 


44          SURE   POP   AND   THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

"Come  on  to  the  fire!"  the  Safety  Scout  called  up  to 
him.  "Perhaps  we  can  do  somebody  a  good  turn.  Bring 
Betty  along,  if  your  mother  doesn't  mind." 

Bob  got  dressed  first  and  hurried  in  to  help  Betty.  Her 
teeth  were  chattering  with  excitement,  and  she  could  hardly 
button  her  clothes.  "Where  is  the  fire,  Bob?" 

"I  don't  know  exactly  —  a  mile  or  two  north  of  here,  I 
think.  Come  on  —  Mother  says  you  may  go,  if  you'll 
stick  close  to  me." 

The  two  clattered  down  the  back  stairs  and  joined  Sure 
Pop. 

"Bother  that  shoe  string,  anyhow!"  panted  Bob  as  they 
scampered  off  to  the  fire. 

"Better  stop  and  tie  it  up,"  advised  the  Safety  Scout. 
"It'll  trip  you  the  first  thing  you  know." 

Bob  thought  otherwise.  A  couple  of  blocks  farther 
on,  however,  he  stepped  on  the  dragging  string,  caught  his 
toe  on  a  loose  board  in  the  sidewalk,  and  sprawled  headlong. 
But  Bob  was  game.  Up  he  jumped,  gave  Sure  Pop  the 
Scout  salute,  and  said,  with  a  grin,  "Sir,  I  stand  corrected." 
Then  he  tied  the  shoe  string  by  the  light  of  a  street  lamp, 
winked  at  Betty,  and  the  three  ran  on. 

The  fire  was  farther  away  than  it  looked,  and  not  till 
they  had  reached  the  hilltop  did  the  size  of  the  blaze  fully 
show  itself.  "Goodness!"  cried  Betty.  "The  German 
church  is  gone,  and  Turner  Hall  will  be  next.  And  look  at 
all  those  little  houses  in  a  row  —  they  won't  last  long  at 


LITTLE   SCHNEIDER'S   FIRE   ALARM  45 

that  rate  !  "  Then  she  stopped  and  coughed,  for  the  air  was 
full  of  smoke  and  soot,  both  from  the  burning  buildings  and 
from  the  fire  engines. 

Everywhere  was  noise  and  confusion.  Half -dressed  men 
and  women  stumbled  over  the  fire  hose  as  they  hurried  along 
with  their  arms  full  of  household  articles,  trying  to  save 
everything  they  could. 

A  frightened  sob  fell  on  Betty's  ears.  She  turned  to  see 
a  chubby  little  baby  boy,  toddling  along  barefooted  in  his 
nightie,  the  tears  rolling  down  his  fat  cheeks.  "Mama!" 
he  sobbed.  "  I  want  my  Mama !" 

"Oh,  poor  little  thing!"  cried  Betty.  "He's  lost!" 
She  caught  the  scared  little  fellow  up  in  her  arms  and 
wrapped  him  snugly  in  the  folds  of  her  loose  cloak. 
"Don't  cry,  honey.  Betty'll  find  Mama  for  you!"  And 
she  cuddled  and  petted  him  till  he  stopped  crying  and  lay 
still  in  her  arms,  peering  out  at  the  spreading  flames  with 
wondering  eyes. 

"I'm  going  to  find  his  mother  for  him,"  said  Betty. 
"He's  scared  half  to  death!" 

But  Sure  Pop  caught  her  arm  as  she  started  away. 
"Wait,  she'll  find  him." 

Sure  enough,  before  long  a  young  woman  came  running 
wildly  from  house  to  house  calling  out,  "  Karlchen !  My 
little  Karlchen !  Where  are  you  ?  " 

The  little  fellow  popped  his  head  out  from  under  Betty's 
cloak  with  a  squeal  of  delight.  "Mama!"  he  cried  in  his 


46    SURE  POP  AND  THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

soft  baby  voice.  "Mama!"  -just  that  one  happy  word, 
over  and  over,  as  his  mother  pressed  him  to  her  breast. 

The  look  on  her  face  was  thanks  enough  for  Betty.  Some- 
how the  fire  did  not  seem  so  dreadful  to  her  after  that. 

"How'd  it  start?7'  Bob  asked  a  fireman  who  was  binding 
up  a  split  in  the  bulging  canvas  hose. 

"Fellow  dropped  a  lighted  match  in  a  coat  closet  — 
house  next  to  the  church,"  puffed  the  fireman,  who  was 
breathing  as  if  he  had  run  a  mile.  He  gave  the  hose  a 
parting  kick  and  hurried  to  join  his  comrades  down  the 
street,  where  the  flames  were  fiercest. 

"The  same  old  story,"  said  Sure  Pop,  soberly.  "Hold 
on!  What's  that?" 

Bob  and  Betty  looked  up  at  the  little  old-fashioned  win- 
dow in  the  cottage  across  the  street.  A  small  black-and- 
tan  dog  was  standing  on  his  hind  legs  inside  the  room,  paw- 
ing and  scratching  at  the  window  pane. 

Sure  Pop  put  two  fingers  to  his  lips  and  gave  a  piercing 
whistle.  The  dog  answered  him,  barking  wildly  and  run- 
ning back  into  the  smoke-filled  room,  then  to  the  window 
again,  as  if  trying  to  call  their  attention  to  something  or 
somebody  in  the  room  with  him. 

"There's  somebody  in  there!"  cried  Bob.  "Come  on, 
Sure  Pop  —  wait  here  for  us,  Betty !" 

As  they  ran,  the  two  splashed  into  a  pool  of  water  in  a 
hollow  of  the  sidewalk.  Sure  Pop  dipped  his  handker- 
chief in  this  and  tied  it  over  his  nose  and  mouth.  Bob  did 


LITTLE   SCHNEIDER'S    FIRE   ALARM  47 

the  same.  Then  the  smoke  of  the  burning  cottage  swal- 
lowed them  up. 

Remembering  the  dangers  of  a  draft,  Sure  Pop  care- 
fully closed  the  door  after  them,  and  stopped  Bob  from  kick- 
ing a  hole  in  the  window  at  the  head  of  the  stairs.  They 
knew  which  room  it  was  —  the  farthest  window  from  the 
front  door  —  and  flung  themselves  against  the  door  so  hard 
that  it  burst  open  and  they  fell  headlong  into  the  room. 
The, little  black-and-tan  dog,  barking  more  wildly  than 
ever,  had  heard  them  coming  and  was  dragging  with  all 
his  might  at  something  on  the  bed. 

Bob  and  Sure  Pop,  half  choked  with  smoke,  ran  to  the 
bedside.  There  lay  a  little  girl  only  five  or  six  years  old. 
Yes,  she  was  breathing ! 

Just  then  the  hungry  flames  burst  in  through  the  flimsy 
closet  door  and  came  licking  along  the  ceiling.  Bob's  eyes 
smarted  and  burned,  and  his  lungs  felt  as  if  they  would 
burst.  He  remembered  his  Boy  Scout  studies  in  First  Aid, 
though,  and  threw  himself  beside  Sure  Pop  on  the  floor, 
where  the  smoke  was  not  so  thick.  Together  they  dragged 
the  little  girl  to  the  window. 

Bob  put  his  lips  close  to  Sure  Pop's  ear.  "Shall  we 
jump?" 

Sure  Pop  shook  his  head.  "Too  risky.  We'll  try  the 
stairs." 

With  the  little  girl  held  close  between  them,  their  bodies 
shielding  her  from  the  flames,  the  two  groped  and  stumbled 


48          SURE   POP   AND    THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

down  the  short  flight  of  stairs,  fairly  falling  through  the 
whirlwind  of  flame  that  swirled  upward  from  the  first  floor. 
Scorched,  singed,  with  their  clothing  afire  in  places,  they 
fought  their  way  back  to  the  street  —  safe  ! 

Betty  ran  forward  with  a  glad  cry  and  flung  her  arms 
around  her  twin.  "Bob!  Oh,  Bob,  I  thought  you  were 
gone!  " 

Just  then  they  heard  a  shout  as  a  frightened  little  family 
group  came  running  up,  and  a  roughly  dressed  laborer 
snatched  the  little  girl  and  kissed  her  till  her  eyes  opened 
and  she  smiled. 

"Good  Schneider!  Nice  Schneider !"  said  her  small 
brother,  patting  the  dog,  who  was  wagging  his  tail  almost 
off  for  joy. 

"  Nice  little  Schneider  —  he  took  —  care  —  of  —  me ! " 
exclaimed  the  little  girl  between  kisses.  And  the  father 
gathered  up  the  little  dog  in  his  arms  and  kissed  him,  too ! 

As  the  tired  Safety  Scouts  opened  the  front  gate  half  an 
hour  later,  the  boom  of  a  cannon  roared  out,  somewhere 
on  the  other  side  of  town,  and  the  twelve  o'clock  bells  and 
whistles  joined  in  an  echoing  chorus. 

Sure  Pop  raised  his  hand  with  a  tired  smile.  "  Midnight ! " 
he  cried.  "Hurrah  for  the  glorious  Fourth !" 

Don't  let  a  careless  match  cost  a  dozen  homes. 

—  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER  NINE 
"  CHANCE  CARTER'S  WAY  " 

BOOM !  It  was  the  distant  roar  of  some  Fourth  of  July 
cannon  which  had  escaped  the  watchful  eye  of  the  police. 

Bob  Dal  ton  stirred  uneasily  and  flopped  over  in  bed. 
The  morning  sun  was  shining  straight  into  his  eyes. 

By  the  time  the  twins  were  dressed  and  downstairs,  Sure 
Pop  was  waiting  for  them  in  the  back  yard.  He,  too,  had 
slept  late  after  the  excitement  of  the  fire. 

"I  had  hoped  for  a  holiday  today/'  he  said,  "but  I 
can  see  there's  going  to  be  plenty  of  scouting  for  me  to  do, 
even  on  a  '  sane  Fourth/  so  I'm  off  on  my  rounds.  How  are 
you  two  going  to  spend  the  day?" 

49 


50          SURE   POP   AND    THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

"  Going  over  to  where  the  fire  was,  as  soon  as  weVe  had 
our  breakfast/7  said  Bob.  "Looks  from  here  as  if  Turner 
HaU's  still  smoking." 

Betty  was  fingering  the  Safety  Button  in  Sure  Pop's 
lapel.  "What  are  you  doing,  Betty?"  asked  the  Safety 
Scout,  with  a  twinkle. 

"  Turning  your  button  right  side  up,"  Betty  told  him. 

The  merry  little  Colonel  laughed  and  explained:  "I  have 
to  wear  it  wrong  side  up  each  day  till  I've  done  my  One 
Day's  Boost  for  Safety." 

"Oh,"  said  Bob.  "Same  as  the  Boy  Scouts  wear  their 
neckties  outside  their  vests  till  they've  done  the  day's  good 
turn  to  somebody?" 

Sure  Pop  nodded.  "That  one  little  rule  is  the  biggest 
thing  in  the  whole  Scout  Law,"  he  said.  "The  Scout  who 
lives  up  to  that  test  —  doing  a  good  turn  to  somebody  every 
day,  quietly  and  without  boasting  —  will  be  classed  along- 
side the  greatest  Scouts  the  world  has  ever  known.  Bring 
me  your  Handbook  of  Scout-Craft  a  moment,  please,  Bob. 
Listen  to  this  from  page  7,  now : 

" '  Another  way  to  remind  himself  is  to  wear  his  Scout 
badge  reversed  until  he  has  done  his  good  turn.  The  good 
turn  may  not  be  a  very  big  thing  —  help  an  old  lady  across 
the  street;  remove  a  banana  skin  from  the  pavement  so 
that  people  may  not  fall;  remove  from  streets  or  roads 
broken  glass,  dangerous  to  automobile  or  bicycle  tires '  — 


"CHANCE   CARTER'S   WAY"  51 

to  say  nothing,"  added  Sure  Pop,  "of  the  danger  to  bare- 
footed boys  and  girls,  or  to  folks  with  thin  shoes  1  Don't 
you  see,  Bob  and  Betty,  how  every  one  of  those  good  turns 
happens  to  be  a  good  turn  for  Safety  as  well?  I  told  you 
a  few  days  ago  that  all  true  Scouts  are  brothers;  aren't 
we  all  working  toward  the  same  end,  after  all?" 

Bob  and  Betty  saw  the  point.  They  turned  their  Safety 
buttons  upside  down  as  Sure  Pop  waved  them  goodby, 
resolving  to  get  them  right  side  up  at  the  very  first  chance 
that  offered. 

They  found  their  father  on  the  front  porch  reading  the 
paper,  taking  solid  comfort  in  the  fact  that  Bruce's  Mills 
were  closed  for  the  day.  "I  want  you  to  help  me  with  a 
little  work  out  in  the  yard,"  he  said,  aas  soon  as  you've 
had  your  breakfast."  So  it  was  almost  one  o'clock  before 
Bob  and  Betty  set  out  for  the  scene  of  last  night's  fire. 
Just  across  the  river  they  met  Chance  Carter  and  George 
Gibson,  bound  in  the  same  direction. 

The  German  church  still  raised  its  steepled  head  toward 
the  sky,  but  its  roof  had  fallen  in,  and  Turner  Hall  was  a 
mass  of  blackened  ruins.  Parts  of  the  walls  were  still 
standing,  swaying  as  if  ready  to  topple  over  any  moment. 
Off  in  one  corner  the  blackened  timbers  and  jumbled  bits 
of  furniture  were  stubbornly  smoldering. 

The  four  stood  and  looked.  "Just  think!"  said  Betty 
softly.  "All  that  from  just  one  little  careless  match! 
Guess  that  man  won't  light  a  match  in  a  coat  closet  again." 


52  SURE   POP   AND    THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

"Pshaw!"  scoffed  Chance  Carter.  "That  wouldn't 
happen  once  in  a  thousand  times." 

"How  many  matches  do  you  suppose  are  scratched  in 
the  United  States  every  second?'7  asked  Bob,  shortly. 

"Oh,  a  couple  of  hundred,  I  suppose." 

"Ten  thousand,  Chance,  every  second.  And  every  match 
is  a  possible  fire.  Sure  Pop  told  me  last  night  that  one 
third  of  the  fire  losses  are  due  to  carelessness  in  handling 
matches.  And  the  fires  in  this  country  cost  us  over  a  mil- 
lion dollars  every  day  —  twice  that,  counting  the  cost  of 
fire  departments." 

"Whew!"     Even  reckless  Chance  looked  impressed. 

"When  you  get  into  the  Boy  Scouts,"  Bob  reminded 
him,  "you'll  find  out  what  they  think  about  fooling  with 
fire.  A  real  Scout  never  leaves  his  camp  fire  till  he's  dead 
sure  it's  out.  Even  after  there's  no  fire  left  that  he  can  see, 
he  pours  water  on  it  and  all  around  it  to  guard  against  its 
rekindling.  A  Scout  who  isn't  careful  about  such  things 
is  looked  down  on  by  the  others  as  not  of  much  account." 

"Well,  I  don't  care;  there's  such  a  thing  as  being  too 
careful.  I  wish  we  had  the  old-fashioned  Fourth  of  July 
back  again.  This  sane  Fourth  business  is  too  tame  for  me ! " 
Chance  strolled  off  to  the  far  corner  of  the  smoking  ruins 
and  began  climbing  around  in  the  half-filled  basement. 

George  winked  at  Betty.  "Can't  teach  him  anything," 
he  chuckled.  "He  was  born  careless  and  he'll  die  careless, 
I  guess.  Look  at  him,  now  —  poking  around  where  those 


"  CHANCE   CARTER'S   WAY"  53 

loose  bricks  may  cave  in  on  him  any  minute.  We  can't  say 
anything,  though,  or  he'll  get  mad.  Chance  Carter  always 
has  to  have  his  own  way." 

"It's  a  wonder  the  police  aren't  guarding  this  place," 
said  Bob,  anxiously.  "Guess  they've  got  their  hands  full 
elsewhere."  He  scowled  as  he  watched  his  reckless  friend 
jumping  from  one  charred  timber  to  another,  never  noticing 
how  the  crumbling  walls  tottered  with  each  jump. 

"Whether  he  likes  it  or  not,"  he  said  finally,  "I'm  going 
to  get  him  out  of  there.  It's  too  risky.  Hey,  Chance ! 
Look  out  —  that  wall's  coming  over!"  His  voice  rose  in 
a  startled  shout. 

"Aw,  I  guess  not-  Chance  got  no  further.  The 
overhanging  wall,  swaying  on  its  wobbly  base  and  loosened 
by  his  sudden  backward  jump,  toppled  over  on  him  in  a 
shower  of  bricks  and  mortar.  "Chance  Carter's  way" 
had  come  to  grief  again ! 

"Too  late  —  again!"  muttered  Bob,  grimly,  diving  into 
the  cloud  of  dust  that  hung  over  the  spot  where  Chance 
had  disappeared.  For  a  picture  had  flashed  into  his  mind 
-  the  memory  of  how  he  had  failed  to  warn  the  wrestlers 
in  time  only  a  few  days  before,  the  picture  of  Joe's  terri- 
fied face  as  his  head  crashed  on  the  cement  sidewalk.  Why 
hadn't  he  warned  Chance  in  time  ? 

A  groan  from  the  wreckage  told  where  the  boy  lay  half 
buried  under  the  fallen  wall.  "Got  me  that  time!"  he 
muttered,  through  his  set  teeth.  "  Guess  my  leg's  broken," 


54          SURE   POP   AND    THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

A  shadow  fell  on  the  two  and  Bob  looked  up  to  see  George's 
white  face  gazing  down  at  him.  "What  can  I  do,  Bob?" 

"Have  Betty  run  for  a  doctor,  or  telephone.  Chance 
is  badly  hurt.  Help  me  lift  this  rubbish  from  on  top 
of  him."  The  boys  worked  fast  but  carefully,  lifting  one 
brick  at  a  time,  till  Chance  was  free.  To  their  dismay  he 
could  not  move. 

"It's  this  leg."  He  touched  his  left,  just  below  the  knee. 
"I  felt  something  break  when  the  wall  hit  me.  Perhaps 
the  other's  broken,  too  —  I  don't  know." 

Very  carefully  Bob  ripped  the  clothing  from  the  injured 
leg.  Then  he  put  one  hand  gently  on  the  spot  Chance 
touched,  and  the  other  hand  just  below  it,  and  lifted  the 
leg  slightly.  There  was  enough  movement  at  the  broken 
point  so  that  there  could  be  no  doubt.  The  other  leg 
proved  to  be  badly  bruised,  but  not  broken. 

Bob  carefully  moved  the  broken  leg  back  into  the  same 
position  as  the  right  one  and  piled  his  coat  and  George's 
around  it  so  it  would  stay  in  shape.  He  brought  the  suffer- 
ing boy  some  water  in  his  hat,  and  the  three  waited  for  the 
doctor. 

"He  said  he'd  come  right  away,"  reported  Betty,  hurry- 
ing back  from  the  telephone.  "But,  Bob,  it  isn't  safe  to 
stay  down  there  —  no  telling  when  that  other  chunk  of  the 
wall  may  fall  on  all  three  of  you.  Shall  I  try  to  push  it 
over  from  the  inside?" 

"  Goodness,  no,  Betty !     Keep  as  far  away  from  it  as  you 


"  CHANCE   CARTER'S   WAY 


55 


can.  Well,  we'll  have  to  get  him  out  of  here,  some  way. 
You  run  back  to  that  first  store,  please,  and  get  half  a  dozen 
good  strong  strips  of  cloth  about  a  foot  wide  and  two  or 
three  feet  long  —  anything  that  will  do  to  tie  his  leg  up  to 
the  splints.  George,  you  bring  over  a  few  of  those  pieces 
of  flooring  that  are  not  too  badly  charred  to  use  for  splints. 
There!" 

He  laid  a  long  piece  of  flooring  along  Chance's  left  side, 
from  below  his  foot  clear  to  his  armpit,  and  chose  a  shorter 
board  for  the  inside  splint.  He  arranged  the  two  coats 
so  that  they  would  pad  the  broken  leg  where  the  boards 
came  up  against  it,  and  tied  the  splints  firmly,  but  not 
tightly,  in  place.  Then  Bob  slowly  gathered  his  groaning 
friend  in  his  arms. 

"Sorry  to  hurt  you,  old  fellow,  but  we've  got  to  get  you 
out  of  here.  You  take  his  legs,  George,  —  gently,  now. 
So !  We  can  climb  out  along  that  cave-in  on  the  street 
side  if  we  take  it  easy.  Up  we  go  ! " 

Better  be  safe  than  sorry. 

—  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE   NUMBER   TEN 

THE   TWINS   MEET   BRUCE 

Chance  Carter,  lying  helpless  on  the  stone  steps  of  Turner 
Hall,  was  wondering  if  the  doctor  would  ever  come.  Bob 
and  George  did  their  best  to  ease  his  pain,  while  Betty  gazed 
anxiously  down  the  street. 

"Why  doesn't  that  doctor  come?" 

"Surely  he  knows  where  we  are,  Betty?" 

"Yes,  I  told  him  Turner  Hall,  and  he  said,  'Why,  Turner 
Hall  burned  down  last  night,  little  girl.'  And  I  told  him 
I  knew  it,  and  that  we  were  waiting  right  beside  what  was 
left  of  it." 

"Hm-m-m!  Something  must  have  happened  to  him 
then ;  he  could  have  walked  it  in  less  time  than  this. 

56 


THE  TWINS  MEET  BRUCE         57 

If  he  doesn't  come  pretty  soon,  we'd  better  call  up  the 
police  department  and  have  them  send  the  ambulance. 
We  can't  wait  here  much  longer." 

While  they  waited,  an  idea  popped  into  Bob's  head. 

"  Look  here,"  he  said,  "  somebody  else  is  likely  enough 
to  get  hurt  here,  just  the  way  Chance  did.  I  believe  we'd 
better  put  up  a  sign.  I'll  get  some  paper  from  that  store." 

So  Bob  hurried  around  to  the  store  and  got  some  wrap- 
ping paper  and  nails  and  borrowed  a  pencil  and  hammer. 
He  worked  fast,  the  shopkeeper  looking  curiously  over  his 
shoulder  while  he  lettered  this  sign : 

DANGER ! 

These   walls   may   fall   on  you   any   moment. 
One  leg  already  broken  here  today.     Keep  out. 

SAFETY   FIRST! 


Bob  had  just  finished  the  lettering  when  a  big  automobile 
came  purring  along  in  front  of  the  ruined  building.  The 
chauffeur  was  in  uniform.  The  big  man  inside  looked  al- 
most lost  among  the  cushions,  so  roomy  was  the  machine. 
At  a  word  from  him,  the  car  slowed  down,  and  he  scanned 
the  ruins  sharply.  Bob  knew  him  in  a  moment  for  Bruce, 
the  great  mill  owner,  one  of  the  richest  men  in  the  city. 

"Hello,  what's  this?    What's  this?"     Bruce  stood  up  in 


58          SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

the  car  when  the  little  group  on  the  steps  caught  his  eye. 
In  a  twinkling  he  was  out  of  the  automobile  and  bending 
over  the  groaning  boy,  while  Bob  and  George  and  Betty 
told  him  what  had  happened. 

"Tut,  tut!"  snapped  the  great  man  whose  mills  gave 
work  to  thousands  of  men,  the  twins'  father  'among  them. 
"This  won't  do  at  all !  If  the  doctor  won't  come  to  him,  we 
must  get  him  to  the  doctor."  Pushing  aside  the  chauffeur,  he 
lifted  Chance  into  the  car  and  on  to  the  deep,  comfortable 
cushions  as  easily  as  if  he  had  been  a  child  of  two  instead  of 
a  lad  of  twelve  and  big  for  his  age. 

"Now,  jump  in,  the  rest  of  you,"  he  said,  "and  we'll 
take  him  over  to  Doctor  MacArthur's." 

Betty  climbed  in  and  George  followed.  The  chauffeur 
took  his  seat  and  looked  around  at  Bob,  waiting.  "What's 
the  matter  now?"  asked  Bruce,  impatiently,  as  Bob  lingered 
on  the  step. 

"It's  those  walls,"  answered  the  boy.  "I  hate  to  leave 
them  in  that  shape  —  somebody  else  will  be  getting  hurt 
just  as  Chance  did.  I'd  better  put  up  the  sign.  You  folks 
go  on,  please,  and  I'll  follow  on  foot." 

The  mill  owner  shook  his  head.  "Put  up  your  sign  and 
come  along.  We'll  wait." 

Bruce  looked  sharply  at  Bob's  sign  as  the  boy  nailed  it 
up  in  place,  but  said  nothing.  Bob  climbed  into  the  waiting 
automobile,  and  the  big  machine  rolled  smoothly,  silently 
to  the  doctor's  office. 


THE  TWINS   MEET  BRUCE  59 

Doctor  MacArthur,  surgeon's  case  in  hand,  came  out. 
He  was  a  little  gray  man  —  gray-haired,  dressed  in  a  gray 
suit,  with  keen  gray  eyes  that  seemed  to  take  in  everything 
at  once. 

"Who  put  those  splints  on?"  He  jerked  out  the  words 
like  a  pistol  shot. 

"I  did,"  said  Bob,  reddening ;  for  the  doctor's  tone  made 
him  feel  that  he  must  have  bungled  his  work. 

Swiftly  the  doctor  bared  the  leg  and  laid  a  deft  finger 
on  the  exact  spot  of  the  break.  "Simple  fracture,"  was 
his  verdict.  "Bone  badly  splintered,  though  —  would 
have  come  through  the  skin  in  short  order  if  you  hadn't 
got  the  splints  on  when  you  did.  Where  does  he  live?" 

He  took  George's  seat  and  George  climbed  over  beside  the 
chauffeur.  On  the  way  to  Chance's  house,  he  insisted  on 
knowing  how  Bob  had  learned  to  give  First  Aid  to  the  injured. 

"So  you're  a  Boy  Scout,  eh?"  Another  keen  glance 
from  those  sharp  gray  eyes. 

"N-no,  sir  —  but  I'm  going  to  be." 

"Eh?    How's  that?" 

"He  isn't  quite  old  enough  yet,"  explained  George. 
"You  have  to  be  twelve  or  over  to  join  the  Boy  Scouts. 
I'm  one  —  but  Bob  knows  a  heap  more  about  it  already 
than  I  do,"  he  added  frankly. 

"Ha!  Well,  I'll  have  to  change  my  opinion  of  the  Boy 
Scouts,  young  man.  I  always  took  it  for  granted  they 
were  a  sort  of  feeder  to  our  regular  army  —  playing  soldier, 


60          SURE  POP  AND   THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

you  know.  But  if  this  is  the  kind  of  work  they  turn  out, 
I  don't  know  but  I'll  join  myself." 

George  got  out  when  they  reached  Chance's  house,  and 
helped  the  doctor  carry  the  injured  lad  up  the  steps.  "  You 
needn't  wait  for  me,"  he  told  the  twins,  "I'm  going  to 
stay  a  while." 

"Come  in  and  see  me  some  time,"  Doctor  Mac  Arthur 
called  back  to  Bob.  "I  want  you  to  tell  me  more  about 
your  First  Aid  work !  See  you  later,  Mr.  Bruce." 

"Home,  Jennings,"  said  Bruce.  "And  be  quick  about 
it  —  I'm  late." 

Bob  leaned  back  against  the  cushions  and  studied  the 
grim,  square- jawed  face  of  the  great  man  whom  everybody 
was  so  anxious  to  please.  So  this  was  the  way  he  looked 
at  close  range,  this  self-made,  stubborn  man  of  millions 
who  always  managed  to  bend  every  other  man  in  his  line 
of  business  to  his  own  iron  will !  As  he  looked,  Bob  felt  it 
was  no  wonder  they  all  feared  him  —  feared  and  followed. 

For  Bruce  was  the  man  who,  more  than  all  the  others 
put  together,  was  responsible  for  keeping  Safety  First 
work  out  of  the  mills  in  his  line  of  business.  Hundreds 
of  men  were  killed  and  thousands  injured  every  year  in 
the  great  string  of  mills  of  which  Bruce's  was  the  head. 
Over  and  over  it  had  been  pointed  out  to  him  that  the 
same  Safety  First  work  which  had  saved  thousands  of  lives 
in  other  lines  would  save  them  in  his  line  as  well.  But 
he  was  stubborn,  iron-willed. 


THE  TWINS  MEET  BRUCE         61 

"You're  wasting  your  time,"  was  all  he  would  say. 
"No  theories  or  new-fangled  notions  in  my  mills." 

Because  Bruce  said  this,  all  the  other  mills  hung  back, 
too.  There  were  reasons.  They  knew  Bruce. 

All  this  Bob  knew  from  talks  he  had  had  with  his  father 
about  the  risks  of  working  in  Bruce's  mills.  He  understood 
it  better,  now  that  he  was  face  to  face  with  Bruce  himself. 

All  too  soon,  to  the  twins'  way  of  thinking,  the  automo- 
bile drew  up  in  front  of  Bruce's  big  stone  house.  The  mill 
owner  wasted  no  words.  Jumping  out,  he  waved  his  hand 
to  the  three,  said  to  Jennings,  "Take  them  wherever  they 
want  to  go,"  and  hurried  up  the  walk. 

The  eager  face  pressed  against  the  big  bay  window  dis- 
appeared, the  front  door  flew  open,  and  a  sweet  little  fair- 
haired  girl  threw  herself  into  Bruce's  outstretched  arms. 
"Daddy !  What  made  you  so  late?  Here  I've  been  wait- 
ing and  waiting  - 

"Bonnie!"  That  was  all  the  twins  heard  as  the  big 
automobile  bore  them  away  toward  home.  But  the  way 
he  said  it,  and  the  way  he  caught  his  little  daughter  to  his 
big,  broad  chest,  told  Bob  and  Betty  all  they  needed  to 
know  about  the  soft  spot  in  the  millionaire's  heart. 

What  did  his  great  house  and  his  mills  and  all  his 
money  amount  to,  after  all  ?  He  would  gladly  have  thrown 
them  all  aside  rather  than  have  the  slightest  harm  come  to 
his  Bonnie;  for  her  mother  had  died  when  Bonnie  was  only 
a  baby,  and  the  little  girl  was  all  Bruce  had  left  in  the  world. 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER  ELEVEN 


"  JUST   FOR   FUN  " 


The  twins  missed  Chance  Carter  during  the  next  few 
weeks.  The  boy  had  been  a  regular  nuisance  in  some  ways, 
for  he  was  always  getting  into  scrapes ;  but  he  was  a  clever 
lad  and  had  a  way  of  making  up  games  that  nobody  else 
seemed  able  to  think  of. 

"It  does  seem  lonesome  without  Chance/7  Bob  told 
Sure  Pop  when  the  broken  leg  had  kept  their  friend  tied 
up  indoors  for  a  week  or  more.  "And  yet  we  don't  get  into 
half  as  much  trouble  when  he  isn't  round." 

Sure  Pop  looked  wise.  "Perhaps  it's  because  Chance 
hasn't  learned  that  he  must  play  according  to  the  rules," 

62 


"JUST  FOR  FUN"  63 

he  said.  "The  fellow  who  is  always  taking  chances  isn't 
playing  up  to  the  rules  of  the  game." 

"Anyhow,"  said  Betty,  "Chance  has  had  his  lesson  now. 
By  the  time  he's  able  to  run  around  again,  he  will  be  ready 
to  quit  taking  chances." 

Sure  Pop  changed  the  subject,  though  a  shrewd  twinkle 
seemed  to  say  that  it  would  take  more  than  one  lesson  to 
teach  Chance  how  to  play  life's  game  according  to  the  rules. 
" How'd  you  like-to  take  a  trip  with  me  today?" 

"  Fine ! "  exclaimed  Bob  and  Betty.     "  Where  ?  " 

"To  a  kind  of  moving  picture  show,"  answered  Colonel 
Sure  Pop.  "Let's  start  right  away,  then.  And  be  sure 
you  wear  your  Safety  First  buttons." 

The  twins  couldn't  help  smiling  at  the  idea  of  going  any- 
where without  their  magic  buttons.  They  boarded  the 
crowded  street  car  with  Sure  Pop  and  stood  beside  the  motor- 
man  all  the  way  to  the  railroad  yards.  It  seemed  as  if 
somebody  tried  to  get  run  over  every  block  or  two,  and  the 
way  people  crossed  the  crowded  streets  in  the  middle  of 
blocks  was  enough  to  turn  a  motorman's  hair  gray. 

"How'd  you  like  to  be  the  motorman,  Bob?" 

"Well,  I  tell  you,  Sure  Pop,  I  don't  believe  it's  as  much 
fun  as  it  looks  from  the  outside.  If  fellows  like  Chance 
and  George  would  ride  beside  the  motorman  for  just  one 
day,  seeing  what  he  has  to  see  right  along,  they'd  be  Safety 
workers  forever  after.  Look  at  that,  now!  Those  chaps 
have  no  business  to  cross  in  the  middle  of  the  block." 


64          SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

"Nobody  has/7  agreed  Sure  Pop,  with  a  keen  glance  at 
Bob.  The  boy  flushed  as  he  remembered  what  he  him- 
self had  been  doing  when  he  first  felt  the  warning  touch 
of  the  Safety  Scout's  hand. 

He  and  Betty  noticed,  too,  how  carefully  Sure  Pop  looked 
all  around  him  before  leaving  the  car,  and  they  did  likewise. 
Two  short  blocks  more  and  they  were  in  sight  of  the  rail- 
road roundhouse.  The  Safety  Scout  stuck  his  head  inside 
the  great  doorway  and  peered  around  at  the  smoking  engines 
that  impatiently  awaited  their  turn.  "  There  she  is  !" 
he  exclaimed.  "There's  old  Seven-Double-Seven!"  And 
he  waved  his  hand  at  the  engineer  up  in  the  cab. 

The  three  climbed  into  the  engine  cab,  where  the  fireman 
stood  waiting  with  his  eye  on  the  steam  gauge.  From  the 
way  the  engineer  shook  hands  with  Sure  Pop,  the  twins 
decided  they  must  be  old  friends. 

"Got  my  orders?"  asked  the  engineer.  He  ripped  open 
the  envelope  Sure  Pop  handed  him,  glanced  at  the  message, 
nodded  to  the  fireman,  and  gently  pulled  open  the  throttle. 
The  big,  powerful  engine  answered  his  touch  like  a  race  horse. 
With  a  warning  clang  of  the  bell,  they  slipped  down  the  shining 
track,  through  the  crowded  yards,  and  toward  the  city  limits. 

"Bob,  what  are  you  looking  for?"  asked  Sure  Pop. 

Bob  went  on  looking  in  all  the  corners  of  the  cab  as  if 
greatly  puzzled.  "Looking  for  the  moving  picture  ma- 
chine," he  said  with  a  grin.  "I  thought  I  heard  you 
promise  us  a  moving  picture  show." 


" JUST  FOR  FUN"  65 

"You  just  wait.  Be  ready  to  rub  your  magic  buttons 
when  I  say  the  word,  both  of  you,  and  you'll  see  some 
moving  pictures  you'll  never  forget  —  pictures  of  what 
might  happen  to  boys  and  girls  like  yourselves.  The  pity 
of  it  is,  it  does  happen,  every  day  of  the  year." 

Sure  Pop  paused  to  call  their  attention  to  some  little 
blurry  patches  of  blue  scattered  along  the  track.  "Wild 
flowers,"  he  said.  "Pretty  things,  aren't  they?  If  we 
weren't  going  so  fast,  we'd  stop  and  get  some." 

The  engineer  scowled.  "Pretty?  They  don't  look 
pretty  to  me  any  more.  Look  there,  now!" 

The  brakes  jarred  as  he  spoke,  and  the  shriek  of  the 
whistle  scattered  a  group  ahead.  Several  young  couples, 
going  home  from  town  by  way  of  the  railroad  track,  had 
stopped  to  gather  wild  flowers.  One  couple  were  walking 
hand  in  hand  over  the  railroad  bridge,  deaf  at  first  to  whistle 
and  bell  and  everything  else.  Suddenly  they  heard,  looked 
up,  and  turned  first  one  way  and  then  another,  uncertain 
whether  to  jump  off  the  bridge  or  stand  their  ground. 

"Is  it  any  wonder  that  I  don't  like  the  flower  season?" 
grunted  the  engineer  in  disgust.  "It's  the  worst  time  of  all, 
seems  to  me.  Now  you'd  think  those  young  fellows  and  girls 
were  old  enough  and  would  have  sense  enough  to  keep  off  the 
railroad's  right  of  way,  wouldn't  you?  But  look  at  'em !" 

He  mopped  his  forehead  and  glared  ahead  at  the  fright- 
ened couple,  holding  the  panting  engine  at  a  standstill 
till  they  could  scramble  off  the  bridge. 


66  SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"They  act  as  if  we  had  nothing  to  do  but  just  watch  out 
for  'em,"  he  went  on,  getting  under  way  again.  "They  got 
off  scot-free  this  time,  but  imagine  what  old  Seven-Double- 
Seven  would  have  done  to  'em  if  this  had  been  my  regular 
run !  Forty  miles  an  hour  on  schedule  —  and  where  would 
they  be  now? 

"It's  the  same  old  story, day  after  day — boys  riding  bicy- 
cles down  the  tracks,  when  the  road's  ten  times  smoother 
and  a  million  times  as  safe !  Boys  playing  on  the  turntables 
and  getting  crippled  for  life,  one  by  one ! 

"They'll  run  like  mad  to  get  across  the  track  ahead  of 
a  fast  train  —  and  then  stand  and  watch  it  go  through !  I 
ought  to  know  —  I  did  it  myself  when  I  was  a  boy,  but 
little  I  knew  then  of  the  way  it  wrecks  an  engineer's  nerves ! 

"They  flip  the  cars  and  try  to  imitate  the  brakemen 
without  the  least  idea  of  how  many  thousands  of  brakemen 
have  lost  their  lives  just  that  way.  They  crawl  under 
cars,  instead  of  waiting  or  going  around.  Why,  Colonel, 
the  railroads  kill  thousands  and  thousands  of  people  every 
year  —  you  know  the  figures  —  dozens  every  day,  week 
in  and  week  out.  And  somebody's  badly  hurt  on  the 
railroads  every  three  minutes  or  less  —  and  a  third  of  them 
are  boys  and  girls  and  little  children!  That's  what  I  can't 
stand  —  the  little  folks  getting  hurt  and  getting  killed,  when 
just  a  bit  of  common  sense  would  save  them !  Oh,  if  their 
fathers  and  mothers  had  any  idea  - 

The  big  engineer  choked  up  for  a  moment.     "Even  on 


"JUST  FOR  FUN"  67 

the  trains,"  he  added,  "when  they're  safe  inside  the  cars, 
they  get  hurt.  I'm  not  the  only  one  that  worries  on  my 
run  —  ask  the  conductor.  He'll  tell  you  how  they  run  up 
and  down  the  aisle,  till  a  sudden  jar  of  the  brakes  throws 
'em  against  a  seat  iron  or  into  the  other  passengers.  They 
get  out  into  the  vestibules,  which  is  against  the  rules,  and 
when  the  train  takes  a  sudden  curve  they  get  smashed  up." 

Three  minutes  later  he  slowed  down  for  the  twins  to 
watch  the  fast  mail  thunder  past.  It  was  near  a  village 
crossing,  and  a  little  group  of  boys  stood  waiting.  As 
No.  777  came  to  a  stop,  the  twins  saw  that  most  of  the  boys 
had  stones  in  their  hands. 

On  came  the  fast  mail,  tearing  past  the  little  village  as  if 
it  were  not  even  on  the  map.  The  mail  cars  —  the  smoker 
-  the  long  rows  of  glass  windows,  a  head  beside  each  — 

Smash !  The  flying  splinters  of  glass  told  of  one  stone 
that  had  found  its  mark.  The  boys  ran  like  scared  cats 
around  the  corner  into  a  lumber  yard. 

"Little  cowards!"  The  fireman  glared  angrily  after 
them.  "They  may  have  killed  somebody  on  that  train  — 
they  don't  know!" 

"Rub  your  buttons!"  whispered  Sure  Pop,  whose  eyes 
were  still  fixed  on  the  fast  mail,  now  disappearing  in  a  cloud 
of  smoke  and  dust. 

Bob  and  Betty  rubbed.  At  their  first  touch  of  the  magic 
buttons  the  disappearing  train  took  on  a  queer,  unreal 
look,  like  a  film  at  the  "movies." 


68          SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

They  seemed  to  be  inside  one  of  the  cars.  They  seemed 
to  be  watching  a  sweet-faced  old  lady  —  somebody's  grand- 
mother —  snowy  haired,  kind,  gentle,  not  used  to  traveling, 
as  even  the  twins  could  see.  She  kept  looking  first  at  the 
time-table  and  then  at  an  old  key-winding  silver  watch 
she  wore  on  a  quaint  little  chain  around  her  neck. 

Her  lips  were  moving,  smiling.  "Only  two  stops  more," 
she  seemed  to  be  saying,  "and  then  I  shall  see  little  Jim." 
She  took  a  kodak  picture  out  of  her  handbag  and  looked  at 
it  long  and  lovingly.  She  glanced  out  of  the  window  and 
saw  a  group  of  boys  standing  by  the  village  crossing  "to 
watch  the  fast  mail  go  through."  She  liked  boys.  She 
smiled  at  them  —  she  did  not  see  the  stones  in  their  hands. 

Smash!  The  other  passengers  sprang  to  their  feet  as 
one  of  the  stones,  thrown  at  random,  shivered  the  car  win- 
dow into  bits  and  struck  the  kind  old  face,  full  between 
the  eyes.  A  quick,  startled  cry  —  a  pitiful  fumbling  of 
kind  old  hands  before  shattered  spectacles  and  eyes  sud- 
denly blinded — and  the  moving  picture  seemed  to  fade  away. 
The  twins  were  left  with  the  sickening  fear  that  perhaps 
little  Jim's  grandmother  might  never  see  him  after  all. 

"Oh!  oh!"  gasped  Betty,  rubbing  her  eyes.  "How 
terrible !"  Bob  caught  Sure  Pop  by  the  arm. 

"Did  we  imagine  it,  Sure  Pop  —  or  was  it  true?" 

"Too  true,"  said  Sure  Pop,  sadly.  "It  happens  almost 
every  day  somewhere  —  where  boys  throw  stones  at  the 
cars  'just  for  fun  '!" 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER  TWELVE 

GETTING   DOWN   TO   BUSINESS 

"And  just  to  think,"  said  Bob,  as  the  three  sat  on  the 
home  steps  talking  over  their  exciting  trip  on  old  No.  777, 
"just  to  think  of  how  many  boys  and  girls  are  killed  on  the 
railroad  tracks  every  day!" 

"Every  day,"  echoed  the  little  Safety  Scout,  "and  all 
over  the  world.  Go  into  any  village  graveyard  along  any 
railroad,  and  you'll  find  the  grave  of  some  boy  or  girl  who 
has  been  killed  trespassing  on  the  railroad  tracks.  No  way 
to  save  them,  I'm  afraid,  till  folks  wake  up  to  the  fact  that 
it's  not  so  much  the  tramps  who  are  being  killed  this  way 
-it's  the  children!" 

"It's  just  awful,"  said  Betty,  puckering  up  her  brow  in  a 

69 


70  SURE   POP   AND   THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

thoughtful  scowl.  "I  think  we  ought  to  do  something 
about  it." 

"What,  for.  instance?"  Sure  Pop  was  watching  her 
sharply. 

"Well,  something  to  put  a  stop  to  it.  Surely  we  could 
find  some  way  of  teaching  the  boys  and  girls  how  to  play 
safely ;  and  then  when  they  grew  up  they'd  be  in  the  habit 
of  thinking  Safety.  Then  they'd  teach  their  boys  and 
girls  —  and  all  this  awful  killing  and  crippling,  or  most 
of  it,  would  be  ended." 

"The  trouble  is,"  said  Bob,  "in  going  at  the  thing  in 
too  much  of  a  hit-or-miss  style.  We  could  do  some  good 
by  talking  to  the  few  boys  and  girls  we  could  reach,  but 
not  enough.  Why  can't  we  organize?" 

Sure  Pop's  eager  face  lighted  up,  overjoyed  at  the  turn 
Bob's  thoughts  were  taking.  "You  can,"  he  said  quietly. 

"Why,  sure!"  went  on  Bob,  getting  more  and  more 
excited  as  the  idea  took  hold.  "Let's  get  busy  and  or- 
ganize an  army  of  Safety  Scouts  right  here.  We've  already 
got  the  biggest  thing  in  the  Safety  Scout  Law  at  work — 
don't  you  see?  —  our  'One  Boost  for  Safety'  every  day. 
We  can  get  some  more  Safety  Scout  buttons  made,  and  as 
fast  as  a  boy  earns  his  - 

"—Or  a  girl  earns  hers !"— interrupted  Betty,  so 
seriously  that  Bob  couldn't  help  smiling. 

"Yes,  of  course  —  girls  too  —  why,  as  fast  as  boys  and 
girls  earn  the  right  to  wear  Safety  Scout  buttons,  we  can 


GETTING   DOWN   TO   BUSINESS  71 

form  them  into  patrols.  It  wouldn't  be  long  before  we 
could  have  several  troops  hard  at  it.  I  tell  you,  Sure  Pop, 
if  we  go  at  it  that  way  we  can  do  big  things  for  Safety 
just  as  sure  as  you're  a  foot  high ! " 

Sure  Pop  gave  Betty  a  droll  little  wink.  "It's  a  go, 
then,"  he  said  cheerfully.  "Well,  where  are  you  going  to 
begin?" 

Bob  looked  up  at  him  with  a  sudden  idea  shining  in  his 
eyes.  "Why  not  begin  by  organizing  in  patrols  and  then 
in  troops,  just  about  like  the  Boy  Scouts?  First,  we  can 
get  a  few  of  our  friends  interested,  and  let  each  one  of  them 
get  eleven  others  interested  —  that  will  make  a  patrol  of 
twelve,  commanded  by  the  one  who  got  them  together." 

"Spoken  like  a  Scout  and  a  gentleman!"  cried  the  little 
Colonel,  giving  him  a  sounding  thump  on  the  shoulder. 
"Go  on,  Bob  —  what  next?" 

"Well,  just  as  fast  as  we  get  four  new  patrols,  we  can  form 
them  into  a  troop,  with  a  Scout  Master  for  their  leader." 

"  Good,"  said  Sure  Pop.  "  It  will  take  some  lively  work 
to  pick  your  Scout  Masters  and  get  them  trained  in  time, 
but  the  difference  in  their  efficiency  will  be  worth  your 
while." 

"I  suppose,"  said  Betty,  "we'll  have  to  choose  only  boys 
and  girls  who  have  good  records  for  Safety?" 

Bob  looked  doubtful.  "What  do  you  think  about  that, 
Sure  Pop?" 

"I  think  it  would  be  a  mistake,  Bob.     You'll  find  too 


72          SURE   POP  AND   THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

few  who  have  even  learned  to  think  Safety.  A  better 
plan  will  be  to  take  in  those  who  seem  most  in  earnest 
over  the  idea,  especially  those  who  have  been  taught  a 
hard  lesson  through  accidents  which  care  would  have 
avoided." 

"  Go  on,  please.  Tell  us  more  —  how  would  you  work 
out  the  details?" 

"Bob,  I  would  —  but  I  believe  I've  told  you  enough. 
You  and  Betty  go  ahead  in  your  own  way  and  work 
out  the  details  yourselves.  Let  me  see  you  get  your 
Safety  Scouts  together,  if  you  really  do  mean  business, 
and  I'll  show  you  about  the  work  that's  already  been 
done  among  the  factory  hands  and  mill-workers  of 
America. 

"Let  me  tell  you  this  much,  though :  you'll  find,  when 
you  get  your  Safety  Scouts  of  America  organized,  that  the 
good  work  will  go  ahead  by  leaps  and  bounds.  All  this 
talk  about '  efficiency '  is  really  part  of  the  same  movement, 
though  very  few  realize  it;  it's  nothing  more  or  less  than 
cutting  out  guess  work  and  waste  —  and  what  else,  after 
all,  is  our  Safety  work?" 

"That's  so.  It  really  is  all  working  in  the  same  direction, 
isn't  it?"  agreed  Bob.  "Chance  Carter's  oldest  brother  is 
studying  to  be  an  efficiency  engineer  —  perhaps  he  can 
give  us  some  ideas." 

"Then  —  you  really  do  mean  to  get  busy  and  organize 
the  Safety  Scouts  of  America?" 


GETTING   DOWN   TO   BUSINESS 


73 


"Mean  it!"  Bob  and  Betty  fairly  shouted  the  words  in 
their  eagerness  to  get  to  work.  And  as  Sure  Pop  said  good 
night  to  them,  there  was  a  joyous  light  in  his  eye  which 
showed  his  plan  was  working  out  just  as  he  had  thought  it 
would. 

He  smiled  a  satisfied  smile  as  the  door  closed  on  the 
excited  Dalton  twins.  "And  now,"  said  Colonel  Sure 
Pop  to  himself,  "now,  we're  getting  down  to  business!" 

Enlist  now  I  We  fight  to  save  life,  not 
to  take  it.  —SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER  THIRTEEN 

DALTON  PATROL 

The  next  few  weeks  were  busy  ones  for  Bob  and  Betty 
Dalton.  The  plan  was  a  big  one  —  the  Safety  Scouts  of 
America.  Growing  out  of  an  idea  planted  by  Colonel  Sure 
Pop,  it  sprouted  and  grew  surprisingly  fast.  Already  the 
news  was  spreading  like  wildfire  among  the  boys  and  girls 
all  over  the  city. 

Joe  Schmidt  was  out  again,  his  head  as  good  as  ever. 
George  Gibson,  always  brim  full  of  energy  and  enthusiasm, 
had  set  his  heart  on  becoming  a  Safety  Scout  Master  and 
heading  a  troop  of  his  own.  Even  Chance  Carter,  hobbling 
about  on  crutches,  had  caught  the  fever  of  Safety  Scouting 

74 


D ALTON  PATROL  75 

and  was  making  all  sorts  of  plans  as  to  what  he  would  do 
when  his  broken  leg  got  well. 

Chance  really  had  changed,  somehow.  The  twins  sup- 
posed it  was  all  due  to  his  accident,  but  the  real  reason  was 
Colonel  Sure  Pop.  Chance  seemed  almost  magnetized  by 
the  little  Colonel  and  never  lost  a  chance  to  be  near  him. 

"  Honestly  now,  Colonel/'  he  owned  up  to  Sure  Pop  one 
day,  "I'd  read  so  many  stories  about  reckless  heroes  and 
all  that,  I  got  in  the  habit  of  thinking  I  had  to  be  reckless. 
Story  books  seem  to  make  out  that  it's  a  brave  thing  to 
risk  your  life  —  and  wasn't  that  exactly  what  Bob  did 
when  he  found  that-live  wire?" 

Sure  Pop  laid  an  understanding  hand  on  Chance's 
shoulder. 

"Listen,  Chance!  You've  caught  only  half  the  point, 
that's  your  main  trouble.  It  is  a  manly  thing  to  take  a 
risk  —  when  it's  necessary.  When  somebody's  life  is  in 
danger,  it's  the  manliest  thing  on  earth  to  take  a  risk  for 
the  sake  of  saving  it.  That's  why  Bob's  act  in  patrolling 
the  live  wire  earned  him  a  Safety  Scout  button  —  the  lives 
of  those  smaller  boys  were  in  danger,  to  say  nothing  of  any- 
body else  who  might  blunder  across  the  wire  just  then  — 
that's  where  the  difference  comes  in." 

"That's  so.     I  never  thought  of  it  in  just  that  way." 

"I  know  you  haven't.  When  you  stop  to  think  it  over, 
you  see  it's  a  fellow's  plain  duty  to  take  a  chance  when  it's 
necessary,  but  it's  downright  foolish  to  do  it  on  a  dare. 


76          SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

One  thing  about  Bob's  live- wire  adventure  I  don't  believe 
even  he  realizes,"  added  Sure  Pop.  "It  was  that  hurry-up 
patrol  of  small  boys  that  he  threw  out  around  the  live  wire 
which  really  gave  him  the  idea  of  how  to  organize  the 
Safety  Scouts  of  America.  I  knew  the  idea  would  strike 
him  and  Betty  sooner  or  later." 

Chance  looked  admiringly  at  the  little  Colonel.  What 
a  wise  Scout  he  was,  sure  enough,  as  keen  and  clever  at 
reading  signs  of  the  trail  as  any  Indian  fighter  that  ever 
stepped  in  deerskin ! 

The  boy  looked  longingly  after  the  Safety  Scout  Patrol, 
which  was  just  starting  off  on  an  "observation  hike,"  as 
Bob  called  it.  Part  of  the  training  Bob  had  laid  out  for 
his  men  was  an  hour's  brisk  walk,  after  which  each  Safety 
Scout  wrote  out  a  list  of  the  unsafe  things  he  had  noticed 
while  "on  the  trail." 

"There's  one  thing  that  stumps  me,  though,"  said  Chance. 
"How  did  Bob  know  that  was  a  live  wire?" 

"He  didn't.  He  simply  had  sense  enough  to  treat  all 
fallen  wires  as  if  they  were  alive.  See?  Better  safe  than 
sorry.  Just  the  same  in  turning  on  an  electric  light :  it 
may  not  harm  you  to  touch  an  iron  bedstead  with  one 
hand  while  you  turn  the  light  on  with  the  other  —  but  it's 
taking  a  chance.  Same's  the  fellow  who  turns  an  electric 
bulb  on  or  off  while  standing  in  a  bathtub:  he  may  go  on 
with  his  bath  in  safety  —  and  then  again  he  may  drop  life- 
less in  the  water. 


DALTON  PATROL  77 

"It's  a  good  deal  like  the  gun  that  isn't  loaded,  Chauncey. 
There  was  a  lad,  you  know,  who  found  a  gun  was  dangerous 
without  lock,  stock,  or  barrel  —  his  father  whipped  him  with 
the  ramrod  !  A  real  Scout  knows  how  to  take  care  of  himself 
-  and  of  others.  And  that's  especially  true  of  Safety 
Scouts." 

"Well,  Colonel,"  said  Chance,  reaching  for  his  crutches 
and  rising  painfully  to  his  feet,  "I'm  for  it!  Perhaps  if 
I  make  good,  the  fellows  will  quit  calling  me  Chance  and 
call  me  either  Chauncey  or  Carter,  I  don't  care  which  — 
but  Chance  makes  me  sick !" 

"Here's  to  you,  Carter!"  said  Sure  Pop,  with  a  hearty 
handshake.  Again  came  that  smile  of  satisfaction  as  he 
watched  the  boy  hobble  off  on  a  slow  "observation  hike" 
of  his  own.  In  Carter's  mind,  too,  the  big  idea  was  taking 
root. 

Ten  days  later,  Colonel  Sure  Pop  was  reviewing  Dalton 
Patrol. 

"Safety  Scouts,"  he  said,  saluting  the  even  ranks  drawn 
up  before  him,  "your  Colonel  is  proud  of  the  work  you're 
doing.  These  ' observation  hikes,'  as  your  Scout  Master 
calls  them,  show  better  than  anything  else  how  much 
more  alert  you  are  to  danger  signs  than  you  were  a  month 
ago. 

"Now,  I've  been  sizing  up  these  risks  as  covered  by 
your  patrol  reports.  They  seem  to  be  of  three  kinds  — 
home,  street,  and  railroad  risks. 


78          SURE  POP  AND  THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"Nobody  can  study  these  reports  without  seeing  that 
our  work  is  plainly  cut  out  for  us  for  the  next  few  months. 
Charity  and  every  other  good  work  begin  at  home  —  though 
they  end  there  only  with  the  weak-minded !  So  our  work 
in  Safety  patrolling  will  naturally  begin  in  our  homes  and 
with  ourselves,  and  will  begin  with  the  risks  which  these 
reports  show  to  be  most  common.  Let  me  read  you  a  few 
of  the  common  risks  reported  by  the  Scouts  of  this  patrol : 

Matches :  left  on  floor  where  they  may  be  stepped 
on ;  or  where  mice  may  nibble  them ;  or  next  the 
stovepipe  or  chimney;  or  thrown  down  before 
the  last  spark  is  out. 

Celluloid  things :  brushes  and  combs  handled 
near  the  gas  jet,  where  they  may  burst  into  flame. 

Kerosene :    poured  on  the  fire  to  make  it  burn 
faster  (three  bad  cases  of  burns  reported  from  this' 
cause  alone). 

Gasoline :  left  near  a  flame,  or  anywhere  except 
clear  outside  the  house. 

Gas :  lighting  oven  of  gas  stove  without  first  open- 
ing oven  door;  leaving  gas  jet  burning  near 
window,  where  breeze  may  blow  curtains  across 
(five  fires  started  that  way  during  last  month). 

Electric  wires :  loose  wires  crossing,  'which  often 
cause  fires. 

Bathers:  venturing  too  far  out  in  deep  water.     In 


DALTON  PATROL  79 

nearly  every  case,  it  is  the  rescuer  who  drowns. 
Never  take  a  chance  that  may  cost  another's 
life, 

Safety  pins:  left  open  within  baby's  reach.  You 
all  know  what  happened  to  Mrs.  Fuller's  baby 
girl  two  weeks  ago,  all  through  an  open  safety  pin. 

Hot  water  and  grease :  left  standing  where  chil- 
dren may  get  into  them. 

Dogs  :  left  unmuzzled  and  running  loose. 

"These  are  only  a  few  of  the  common  dangers  shown  in 
your  scouting  reports.  So  far,  our  work  has  been  hunting 
out  these  risks  and  listing  them.  From  now  on,  we'll  fall 
to  with  a  will  and  set  them  right  as  fast  as  we  can,  in  our 
own  homes  first  and  next  among  our  neighbors. 

"Just  one  word  of  caution  before  we  take  up  this  new 
patrol  duty.  Let's  be  careful  how  we  go  about  setting 
these  things  right.  Remember,  we  can  catch  more  flies 
with  honey  than  with  vinegar,  so  let's  not  give  people 
the  idea  we  are  criticizing  them  —  just  suggesting. 

"For  instance :  if  a  Safety  Scout  sees  a  mop  and  a  pail 
of  scalding  water  on  Mrs.  Muldoon's  back  steps  and  one  of 
her  babies  in  danger  of  pitching  into  it  headfirst,  he'd  better 
not  walk  up  and  begin  to  scold  about  it.  Mrs.  Muldoon 
may  have  done  that  for  years  without  scalding  any  one  yet. 
More  likely  than  not  she'd  just  order  you  off  the  place  - 
and  go  right  on  as  before.  But  if,  instead,  a  Scout  steps  up 


8o          SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

and  begins  playing  with  the  baby,  he  can  first  get  baby 
out  of  harm's  way  and  then  watch  his  chance  to  say,  'Baby 
seems  to  have  his  eyes  on  that  pail  of  hot  water,  Mrs.  Mul- 
doon.  Two  babies  over  on  the  west  side  were  scalded 
to  death  last  week ;  did  you  hear  about  it  ? '  Chances  are 
Mrs.  Muldoon  will  be  around  warning  all  her  neighbors 
before  you Ve  been  gone  ten  minutes.  Get  the  idea  ?  — 
honey  instead  of  vinegar." 

"Honey  works  better  down  in  South  America,  anyhow  !" 
said  a  deep  voice,  and  a  tall,  handsome  man  stepped  for- 
ward, saluted,  and  shook  hands  cordially  with  Colonel 
Sure  Pop.  He  was  brown  as  a  berry  from  the  tropical  sun 
and  he  carried  his  left  arm  in  a  sling. 

"Uncle  — Uncle  Jack!"  The  Dalton  twins  forgot  that 
the  troop  was  on  review,  forgot  Mrs.  Muldoon's  babies, 
forgot  everything  and  everybody  but  Uncle  Jack.  What 
a  surprise  !  And  he  knew  Sure  Pop,  too ! 

"Sure  pop,  I  do!"  laughed  the  explorer,  kissing  Betty 
warmly  before  the  whole  admiring  troop.  "Here,  look 
out  for  that  lame  arm,  you  rascals !  Our  surgeon  told  me 
it  would  be  well  in  a  month,  but  he  was  too  optimistic,  for 
once!"  For  Bob  and  Betty  were  fairly  swarming  over 
their  favorite  uncle,  home  at  last  from  the  jungle. 

"Nellie,"  said  Uncle  Jack  to  Mrs.  Dalton  that  night, 
when  the  Safety  Scouts  were  off  to  bed  at  last,  "those  twins 
of  yours  are  making  history  —  do  you  realize  that?" 

"Well,"  said  his  sister,  "they  have  their  faults,  like  all 


DALTON  PATROL 


81 


the  rest,  but  they're  pretty  fine  youngsters  at  that.     But, 
oh,  Jack,  they're  growing  up  so  fast !" 

"They  are,  sure  enough,  like  weeds;  but  their  harvest 
isn't  going  to  be  any  weed  crop,  now  mark  my  words.  I 
heard  most  of  what  was  said  at  their  patrol  review  this 
afternoon  before  anybody  saw  me ;  and  on  my  word,  Nell, 
those  youngsters  have  started  something  bigger  than  they 
have  any  idea  of,  something  that  no  power  on  earth  is 
going  to  be  able  to  stop.  After  all,  I'm  just  as  pleased  that 
the  old  chief's  spear  thrust  sent  me  home  in  time  to  see 
the  Safety  Scouts  of  America  in  the  making!" 

A  real  Scout  knows  how  to  take  care  of  himself 
-and  of  others.  —SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER  FOURTEEN 

SIX   TIMELY   TIPS 

Sure  Pop  and  Uncle  Jack  were  sprawled  out  side  by  side 
on  the  green  river  bank,  talking  over  old  times.  Bob  and 
Betty  were  hanging  on  every  word. 

"My  first  few  months  of  Safety  work  among  American 
factories  and  mills/'  Sure  Pop  was  saying,  "was  largely 
planting.  I  planted  the  Safety  First  idea  and  gave  it 
time  to  grow.  I  began  with  the  steel  mills ;  then  I  turned 
to  the  railroads,  then  to  the  wood-working  shops,  and  so 


on. 


Uncle  Jack  gazed  thoughtfully  at  the  sparkling  river. 


SIX  TIMELY  TIPS  83 

"Well,"  he  said  at  last  to  Sure  Pop,  "what  results  and 
how?" 

"How?"  repeated  the  little  Colonel.  "First,  by  putting 
the  idea,  Safety  First,  into  the  mind  of  every  workman 
we  met.  Second,  by  whispering  in  his  ear  new  ways  of 
cutting  out  accidents  —  after  the  Safety  First  idea  had 
had  a  chance  to  sink  in.  Results?  Three  fourths  of  the 
deaths  and  injuries  in  the  steel  mills  were  cut  out  entirely 
in  six  years'  time ;  in  the  railroads,  the  number  of  accidents 
was  cut  squarely  in  two  in  three  years'  time;  in  other 
kinds  of  work  —  all  except  one  —  big  reductions  all  along 
the  line." 

"Great!"  There  was  no  mistaking  the  admiration  in 
Uncle  Jack's  voice.  "What  about  the  one  exception  — 
what  line  was  that?" 

"It's  a  certain  class  of  mills  that  is  practically  controlled 
by  one  man,  a  very  able  man,  but  exceedingly  self-willed 
and  stubborn.  He  owns  a  chain  of  mills  from  coast  to 
coast,  and  the  rest  of  the  manufacturers  in  his  line  follow 
his  lead  in  everything.  He  has  fought  the  Safety  First 
idea  from  the  start  —  calls  it  '  one  of  these  new-fangled 
notions '  -  -  will  have  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  it  —  and  he 
has  held  back  the  Safety  movement  in  his  whole  line  of 
work." 

"Hm-m-m!  Hard  nut  to  crack,  eh?  What's  the  old 
codger's  name?" 

"Bruce.    He's  done  more  to  handicap  Safety  work  than 


84          SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

any  other  man  in  the  country  —  and  I  do  believe  he's 
proud  of  it,"  said  Sure  Pop,  grimly. 

"Bruce  —  isn't  that  the  man  your  father  works  for, 
Bob?" 

Bob  nodded.  "He  has  a  heart,  though"  -and  he  told 
them  how  the  mill  owner  had  come  to  Chance  Carter's 
aid,  and  how  like  a  different  man  he  had  seemed  when  little 
Bonnie  threw  her  happy  arms  around  him. 

"Queer  mixture,  isn't  he?"  said  Uncle  Jack. 

"Yes,  he  is.  But  don't  you  suppose  our  patrol  could 
do  something  to  change  his  mind?" 

Uncle  Jack  waved  the  idea  aside.  "Forget  it,  Bob, 
forget  it !  Don't  lose  sight  of  what  the  Colonel  told  you 
Scouts  yesterday  about  the  right  way  to  go  at  things.  Well, 
the  right  way  to  go  at  Bruce  is  to  leave  him  alone  for  a 
while.  If  he's  as  prejudiced  as  all  that,  interfering  would 
only  make  him  worse.  He'll  come  around  by  and  by,  won't 
he,  Colonel?" 

"All  in  good  time,"  said  Sure  Pop.  "Your  work  is  cut 
out  for  you,  Bob,  as  I  told  you  yesterday.  Get  the  Safety 
First  idea  well  rooted  in  the  homes,  and  then  we'll  begin 
on  the  streets,  and  get  folks  in  the  habit  of  thinking  Safety 
every  time  they  cross  the  street." 

Uncle  Jack  yawned  and  stretched  himself. 

"  Can  you  spare  these  twins  of  ours  for  the  day,  Colonel  ? 
I'Ve  a  frolic  of  my  own  I  want  to  borrow  them  for,  if  I  may." 

"Sure  pop  !     Go  ahead,  sir." 


SIX  TIMELY  TIPS  85 

Uncle  Jack  stepped  across  the  street  to  a  telephone,  and 
the  first  thing  Bob  and  Betty  knew,  a  big  red  automobile 
drew  up  beside  them.  "Jump  in,  folks  —  look  out  for  my 
arm,  please.  Now  —  we're  off !  Goodby,  Colonel." 

"My,  but  isn't  this  glorious!"  Betty  nestled  closer 
to  her  uncle  as  they  sped  along  toward  the  shopping  dis- 
trict. "  Is  this  your  car,  Uncle  Jack  ?  " 

"  For  today  it  is,"  laughed  her  uncle.  "Today  we'll  just 
make  believe  I  own  the  mint.  Careful  there,  driver!" 

Forgetful  of  his  lame  arm,  he  jumped  to  his  feet  and 
waved  his  hand  in  warning.  They  had  been  running 
smoothly  along  the  car  tracks,  and  another  automobile 
had  cut  in  ahead  of  them  from  around  the  corner.  A  tow- 
headed  lad  of  about  Bob's  age,  who  was  stealing  a  ride  on 
it,  holding  himself  on  by  main  strength  as  the  automobile 
jounced  along  over  the  crossing,  had  just  made  up  his  mind 
he  would  ride  no  farther  and  was  getting  ready  to  jump. 
Down  he  came,  kerflop,  in  the  street,  stubbing  his  toe  as 
he  tried  to  catch  his  balance. 

Uncle  Jack's  chauffeur,  warned  by  his  shout,  gave  the 
steering  wheel  a  quick  turn  —  and  cleared  the  boy  by  a 
hand's  breadth !  Uncle  Jack  sank  back  on  the  cushions, 
his  eyes  flashing. 

"Reckless  young  rascal!  Trying  to  make  murderers 
of  us,  is  he  ?  What  are  you  Safety  Scouts  going  to  do  about 
the  boys'  hitching  on  like  that,  Bob?" 

Bob  pulled  a  notebook  out  of  his  pocket.     "Here's  how 


86  SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

Sure  Pop  has  summed  up  our  patrol  reports  on  street 
accidents.     He  calls  it  - 

Six  TIMELY  TIPS  ON  STREET  SAFETY 

Tip  i :  Make  the  street  car  stop  before  you  step 
on  or  off  — the  car  can  wait.  But  step  lively ! 

Tip  2  :  Face  forward  in  getting  off.  Hold  the 
grip  iron  with  your  left  hand  —  it's  a  friend 
in  need.  Left  foot  to  the  step,  right  foot  to  the 
ground,  eyes  front ! 

Tip  3  :  Before  leaving  the  car,  look  both  ways  for 
automobiles,  wagons,  and  motor  cycles. 

Tip  4 :  In  passing  behind  a  car,  first  peek  around 
to  see  what's  coming.  When  carrying  an  um- 
brella, peek  around  that,  too. 

Tip  5  :  Before  you  hitch  on  or  steal  rides  on  street 
cars,  automobiles,  or  wagons,  better  make  your 
will. 

Tip  6 :  Keep  wide  awake  in  getting  on  and  off 
cars  and  in  crossing  streets.  Walk  fast,  but  don't 
run.  Use  all  the  sense  you  have ;  you're  likely  to 
need  it  and  to  need  it  quick ! 

"Those  six  tips  are  not  guess  work  either,  Uncle  Jack. 
They're  boiled  down  from  weeks  of  street  scouting  by  every 
boy  and  girl  in  our  patrol." 


SIX  TIMELY  TIPS  87 

"Those  are  good,  sensible  tips,"  said  his  uncle.  "What 
use  are  you  going  to  make  of  them?" 

"Well,  by  the  time  vacation's  over,  we  will  have  a  special 
School  Safety  Patrol  drilled  and  ready  to  get  down  to  busi- 
ness on  this  particular  work  among  the  youngsters  —  to 
get  them  out  of  the  habit  of  hitching  on,  and  that  sort  of 
thing.  Our  idea  is  to  begin  with  the  smaller  school  chil- 
dren ;  there  have  been  a  good  many  bad  accidents  to  them, 
you  see,  going  to  and  from  school.  Most  of  them  have  to 
cross  the  tracks;  it's  altogether  too  easy  for  them  to  get 
confused  and  run  down  by  a  street  car  or  engine  or  auto." 

"That's  right,  Bob.     How  are  you  going  to  stop  it?" 

"Why,  each  Scout  in  the  School  Patrol  takes  charge  of 
the  school  children  in  his  block  for  one  month.  It's  his 
job  to  get  them  together  at  a  convenient  corner  in  the  morn- 
ing, then  herd  them  across  the  tracks  and  through  the 
crowded  streets  to  school ;  to  do  the  same  thing  on  their 
way  home ;  and  to  keep  an  eye  on  their  games  during  re- 
cess, reporting  any  risky  condition  to  their  teachers. 
We've  planned  it  so  this  team  work  will  not  only  keep  the 
youngsters  from  being  run  over  and  all  that,  but  will  also 
be  training  them  to  take  care  of  themselves  and  keep  out 
of  danger  just  like  any  Safety  Scout.  How  does  the  idea 
strike  you?" 

"Fine!  It's  a  good,  practical  plan!  Makes  me  wish  I 
were  a  boy  again  myself.  Hello,  here  we  are  —  out  we  go ! " 

"Why,  where  are  we?" 


88  SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"HI  soon  show  you."  Uncle  Jack  led  the  way  to  the 
elevator  and  they  shot  up,  up,  clear  to  the  roof. 

"Hungry?"  he  asked,  as  a  white-clad  waiter  showed 
them  to  a  table.  He  enjoyed  the  surprise  of  Bob  and  Betty ; 
they  had  never  had  luncheon  downtown  before.  Mr. 
Dalton's  hard-earned  wages  left  no  room  for  such  celebra- 
tions as  this.  And  a  roof  garden  — !  No  wonder  it  seemed 
very  strange  and  very  grand  to  the  Dalton  twins. 

They  must  have  spent  a  good  half-hour  ordering  that 
meal :  it  was  fun  to  study  the  big  bill  of  fare  and  pick  out 
delicious  things  which  they  "never  had  at  home."  Uncle 
Jack  seemed  to  find  it  just  as  much  fun  as  they  did,  and  he 
understood  pretty  well  how  they  felt  as  they  ate  and  ate, 
while  they  gazed  out  on  the  roofs  of  the  city  spread  out 
below  them.  It  wasn't  so  very  many  years,  you  see,  since 
he  had  been  a  youngster  himself ! 

Plant  the  Safety  First  idea  and  watch  it  grow. 

—  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE  NUMBER   FIFTEEN 

TWIN   UNIFORMS 

"How  nice  and  cool  it  is  up  here  I" 

Betty,  looking  very  grown-up  and  quite  as  if  she  were 
used  to  taking  luncheon  in  a  roof  garden  every  day,  smiled 
contentedly  at  Uncle  Jack  over  her  glass  of  lemonade. 

"Cool  as  a  cucumber,"  said  her  uncle.  "Hard  to  realize 
how  sweltering  hot  it  is  down  there  in  the  street,  isn't  it? 
Betty,  what's  your  Safety  work  going  to  be  when  school 
begins?" 

Betty  glanced  at  Bob ;  she  had  not  yet  told  even  him 
about  her  plan.  "First,  I  suppose,  111  serve  my  month 
on  the  School  Safety  Patrol ;  and  then  —  then,  I'm  going 

89 


9o  SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

to  talk  to  my  teacher  about  starting  Safety  Games  in  the 
lower  grades." 

"Safety  Games !"    Bob's  tone  showed  his  surprise. 

"Yes,  Bob.  Funny  sounding  idea,  isn't  it?  But  I've 
thought  out  a  lot  of  games  that  the  kindergarten  children 
can  play,  games  that  will  be  brand  new  to  them,  and  lots 
of  fun,  and  at  the  same  time  will  get  them  into  the  habit 
of  thinking  Safety  and  looking  out  for  themselves  on  the 
street." 

"Tell  us  one,"  demanded  Bob. 

"Well,"  said  Betty,  "one  of  them  I  call  'Little  Safety 
Scout.'  We  can  begin  by  asking  the  little  folks  in  one 
grade  what  things  they  ought  to  keep  in  mind  when  crossing 
a  busy  street.  The  one  that  gives  the  best  answer  is  made 
'Little  Safety  Scout.'  One  of  the  biggest  boys  plays  he's 
the  crossing  policeman,  other  children  play  street  cars, 
others  make  believe  they're  automobiles,  and  so  on.  The 
rest  are  just  people  trying  to  get  across  the  street,  and  they 
have  trouble  trying  to  understand  what  the  policeman's 
whistle  signals  mean,  and  some  get  run  over,  and  some  are 
saved  by  the  'Little  Safety  Scout,'  and  others  show  the  right 
way  to  get  on  and  off  a  car,  and  all  that." 

"Well,  Betty  Dalton,"  cried  Uncle  Jack,  "you're  a 
regular  little  witch!  Why,  that's  a  dandy  plan.  The 
first  thing  you  know,  you'll  have  the  little  folks  able  to  take 
care  of  themselves  on  the  streets  better  than  the  grown-ups 
do!" 


TWIN  UNIFORMS  91 

"Fine!"  chimed  in  Bob.  "And  we  can  give  them  Sure 
Pop  buttons,  too!" 

"That's  right,  we  can,"  said  Betty.  "We  can  give 
buttons  to  the  children  who  pass  an  easy  little  Safety  First 
examination  after  weVe  played  the  Safety  Games  a  few 
weeks.  And  perhaps  we  might  make  some  Safety  posters 
to  hang  on  the  schoolroom  walls ;  just  big  posters  in  colored 
crayons,  with  a  picture  of  Sure  Pop  and  one  of  his  Safety 
mottoes  below  it  in  big  letters,  —  like,  '  Folks  that  have  no 
wings  must  use  their  wits,'  -  -  something  that  would  make 
the  children  remember  the  point  of  the  story  longer.  Don't 
you  think  that  would  help  along?" 

Thus  the  three  friends  went  on  planning,  till  the  jolly 
head  waiter  asked  them  for  the  ninth  time  if  they  wouldn't 
have  something  more,  and  Uncle  Jack  looked  at  his 
watch  with  a  start  of  surprise. 

"Four  o'clock!  Whew!  We  must  get  out  of  this. 
We  have  lots  to  do  yet  before  we  go  home,  and  I  told  the 
chauffeur  to  be  back  here  at  five.  Let's  stop  in  the  cold- 
storage  room  below." 

"Is  that  what  makes  the  roof  so  cool?"  asked  Betty, 
as  they  looked  around  on  the  floor  below. 

"Ha,  ha!  Not  a  bad  idea  —  perhaps  it  does  have 
something  to  do  with  it.  No,  this  is  where  the  store  keeps 
its  furs  during  the  summer  months.  Moths  can't  stand 
the  cold,  you  know.  Come  on,  we'll  go  on  down  now." 

The  elevator  car  was  nearly  full  of  people  from  the  roof 


92  SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

garden.  Betty  started  to  step  in,  hesitated,  then  turned 
back.  Uncle  Jack  motioned  her  and  Bob  in,  stepped  in  after 
them,  and  carefully  turned  so  that  he  faced  the  elevator 
door. 

"That  was  a  risky  thing  you  did  just  then,"  he  whis- 
pered to  Betty.  "Three  quarters  of  all  the  elevator  acci- 
dents are  due  to  stepping  in  or  out  in  the  wrong  way.  Never 
do  the  thing  halfway,  you  know.  Always  wait  till  the 
elevator  man  stops  the  car  at  the  floor  level  and  throws  the 
door  wide  open." 

Next  to  them  in  the  elevator  stood  two  boys  —  cash 
boys  in  the  store  —  who  were  fooling  and  scuffling  so  close 
to  the  door  that  the  elevator  man  cautioned  them  twice 
as  the  car  dropped  swiftly  downward.  Finally  one  of  them 
brought  his  heel  down  on  the  other's  foot  so  hard  that  the 
other  jumped  backward,  forgetting  everything  else  for  the 
pain.  Forward  went  his  head  —  bang  went  his  face 
against  the  iron  grating  of  the  door  they  were  just 
passing. 

The  elevator  stopped  with  a  jerk.  They  carried  the  boy 
out  and  sent  for  the  store  doctor.  Bob  and  Betty  never 
had  to  be  reminded,  in  all  the  years  to  come,  to  look 
sharp  when  riding  in  elevators.  The  memory  of  that 
bruised  and  battered  face  was  warning  enough. 

"It's  a  dangerous  machine,"  said  Uncle  Jack  as  they 
left  the  store.  "A  fellow  who  will  scuffle  in  an  elevator  is 
foolish  enough  for  almost  anything.  Here's  our  next  stop," 


TWIN  UNIFORMS  93 

and  he  showed  them  into  a  shop  with  a  big  sign  over  the 
double  door: 

UNIFORMS  —  READY  MADE  OR  TO  ORDER 

"Uncle  Jack  must  be  going  to  have  a  new  uniform/' 
whispered  Betty  to  her  twin  as  the  tailor  came  up  with 
his  tape  over  his  shoulders.  But  it  was  not  around  their 
uncle  that  the  tape  measure  went,  it  was  around  Bob ! 

"Yes,  the  regulation  khaki,"  Uncle  Jack  was  saying. 
"Cut  and  finish  it  just  like  this  one,"  and  he  handed  the 
tailor  a  photograph  of  Sure  Pop. 

"Your  turn  next,  Betty,"  said  Uncle  Jack,  and  to  Betty's 
great  delight  and  the  tailor's  surprise,  she  was  measured  for 
a  special  Safety  Scout  uniform  too ! 

Uncle  Jack  did  not  stop  there.  He  bought  the  twins 
Safety  Scout  hats  of  fine,  light  felt,  made  for  hard  service, 
and  he  was  on  the  point  of  buying  them  leather  puttees 
or  leggings,  but  Bob  stopped  him. 

"Canvas  leggings  are  plenty  good  enough,"  he  said. 
"The  fellows  couldn't  afford  leather,  most  of  them,  and  we 
want  them  all  to  match." 

"  Canvas  it  is,  then,"  nodded  his  uncle,  and  went  on  making 
up  the  outfits.  Betty  sighed  happily  as  they  followed  him 
into  another  store.  It  all  seemed  too  good  to  be  true  !  The 
first  thing  she  knew,  they  were  sitting  at  a  glass-topped  table. 

Uncle  Jack  mopped  his  steaming  forehead  again. 
"That  tailor  shop  beats  the  jungle  all  hollow  for  heat !"  he 
exclaimed.  "What  kind  of  ice  cream  do  you  want,  Scouts  ?  " 


94  SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

Betty  thought  it  was  time  to  object.  "Oh,  Uncle  Jack, 
we've  had  enough  !  You've  done  too  much  for  us  already ! " 
All  the  same,  she  enjoyed  the  ice  cream  just  as  much  as  the 
others  did,  and  when  Uncle  Jack  tucked  a  box  of  chocolates 
under  her  arm,  her  cup  of  joy  was  full. 

"What  are  you  thinking  about,  Betty?"  asked  Uncle 
Jack  as  the  big  red  automobile  bore  them  merrily  homeward; 
for  Betty  had  not  said  a  word  for  blocks  and  blocks. 

She  patted  Uncle  Jack's  arm  —  the  well  one  —  with  a 
grateful  smile.  "I  was  thinking  what  a  perfectly,  perfectly 
lovely  day  we've  had!  And  wishing,"  she  murmured, 
wistfully,  "that  Mother  had  been  along  too." 

"Now  that  part's  all  taken  care  of,"  said  Uncle  Jack. 
"Your  mother's  going  out  for  a  spin  with  me  tonight  after 
Baby's  asleep ;  she  couldn't  leave  today,  she  said.  She 
and  I  will  have  a  good  long  ride  down  the  river  front  in 
the  moonlight.  Be  sure  you  get  a  good  sleep  tonight,  now, 
you  two ;  I  want  you  to  be  in  good  trim  for  a  little  ex- 
ploring party  I'm  planning  for  tomorrow." 

"We'll  be  up  bright  and  early,  ready  for  anything," 
Bob  told  him.  "Whew!  but  this  has  been  a  whirlwind 
of  a  day !  Glad  you're  going  to  take  Mother  out  —  that's 
the  only  way  she'd  get  a  cool  breeze  tonight,  all  right ! " 

"But  it  can't  be  as  nice  as  the  roof  garden,  even  then !" 
cried  his  happy  twin,  as  she  lifted  out  her  big  box  of  candy 
and  skipped  up  the  front  steps  two  at  a  time. 


ADVENTURE   NUMBER    SIXTEEN 

WHERE    SAFETY   WAS   A    STRANGER 

True  to  their  word,  Bob  and  Betty  were  up  bright  and 
early,  ready  for  Uncle  Jack's  exploring  trip. 

"We're  going  to  visit  one  of  the  big  wood- working  mills/' 
he  explained  as  they  left  the  house  after  breakfast.  "I'm 
curious  to  see  the  result  of  Colonel  Sure  Pop's  Safety 
patrolling,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  will  be  about  as  interest- 
ing a  shop  as  we  can  begin  on.  It  will  be  fun  to  see  what 
they're  doing  to  make  it  safer  for  the  men  —  perhaps  we  can 
get  some  ideas  for  your  outside  patrols,  Bob." 

The  twins  looked  around  them  sharply  as  they  went  into 
the  mill  by  way  of  its  lumber  yard.  "I  don't  see  anything 
here  that  looks  dangerous,"  was  Bob's  first  remark.  "Hold 

95 


96  SURE   POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

on,  though  —  what  about  those  piles  of  lumber  ?     Don't 
you  think  they're  piled  too  high  to  be  safe?" 

"I  can  tell  you  this  much,"  said  Uncle  Jack,  who  had 
been  reading  up  on  the  year's  long  list  of  accidents.  "The 
danger  of  being  hit  by  falling  or  flying  objects  in  mills  and 
factories  is  the  biggest  risk  in  the  whole  country  today." 

He  walked  around  to  the  laborers  who  were  piling 
lumber  and  began  talking  with  the  foreman.  The  twins 
stepped  nearer  so  that  they  could  hear  what  he  was  saying. 

"They're  getting  that  pile  rather  high,"  said  Uncle 
Jack,  as  if  he  had  only  just  noticed  it.  "It's  beginning  to 
look  a  bit  wobbly  on  its  pins.  Isn't  there  danger  of  its 
toppling  over  and  hurting  somebody?" 

"Oh,  I  don't  know,"  was  the  foreman's  answer.  "We 
do  have  a  few  men  smashed  up  that  way,  off  and  on ;  it's 
all  in  the  day's  work,  though." 

Hardly  were  the  words  out  of  his  mouth  when  a  heavily 
loaded  wagon  in  passing  beside  the  lumber  piles  swayed 
and  came  squarely  up  against  the  one  the  men  were 
working  on.  With  a  crash  and  a  clatter  the  whole  thing 
went  over.  One  man  jumped  clear  of  the  wreck,  another 
slid  down  with  the  lumber,  bruised  but  not  much  hurt  - 
and  two  disappeared  under  the  huge  mass  of  falling  boards. 

The  three  Safety  Scouts  stood  watching  the  ambulance, 
fifteen  minutes  later,  as  it  carried  off  the  two  men  to  the 
hospital,  one  with  a  broken  arm  and  a  gash  over  one  eye, 
the  other  hurt  inside  so  badly  that  he  died  that  night. 


WHERE   SAFETY  WAS   A   STRANGER  97 

Both  of  them  had  boys  and  girls  of  their  own  —  families 
whose  living  depended  on  their  daily  wages  at  the  mill ! 

"Hard  luck  for  their  folks,"  said  Uncle  Jack,  as  the  am- 
bulance rumbled  away.  "The  Colonel  told  me  yesterday 
his  men  had  done  a  lot  of  successful  Safety  scouting  among 
the  wood- working  mills.  I  can't  understand  it.  By  the 
way,  Bob,  that  ambulance  reminds  me :  what  drill  are  you 
giving  your  Safety  Scouts  on  how  to  call  the  fire  depart- 
ment, and  the  police  and  the  ambulance  and  so  on?" 

"We've  got  that  well  covered  in  our  Saturday  reports, 
Uncle  Jack.  Once  a  week  each  Scout  adds  to  his  report 
the  telephone  number  of  the  police  and  the  fire  department 
-it's  usually  a  number  that's  easy  to  remember,  like 
1  Main  o'  for  fire  and  'Main  13'  for  police  —  as  well  as  the 
street  address  of  the  nearest  station." 

"Bob,  how  did  they  happen  to  choose  those  numbers?" 
wondered  Betty. 

Her  brother  grinned.  "I  suppose  because  after  a  bad 
fire  there's  nothing  left,  and  because  it's  unlucky  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  police!"  and  he  cleverly  ducked  the  box 
Betty  aimed  at  his  ear. 

Uncle  Jack's  twinkle  didn't  last  long,  though.  He  was 
too  much  puzzled  over  the  carelessness  he  was  noticing  in 
this  mill,  carelessness  where  he  had  expected  to  find  up-to- 
date  Safety  methods.  He  poked  with  his  foot  at  a  board 
with  several  ugly  nails  sticking  up  in  it  and  jammed  them 
carefully  down  into  the  ground. 


p8  SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"That's  the  fourth  bad  case  of  upturned  nails  I've  found 
here  already,"  he  said  quietly.  "  There's  no  end  of  broken 
bottles  and  such  trash  under  foot,  and  just  look  at  that 
overloaded  truck,  will  you?  One  sharp  curve  in  the  track 
and  that  load  will  spill  all  over  the  place.  Why,  these 
chaps  don't  realize  the  first  thing  about  Safety,  Bob." 

They  moved  on  into  the  engine  room.  One  of  the  en- 
gineer's helpers,  a  boy  who  looked  hardly  older  than  Bob, 
stood  beside  a  swiftly  moving  belt,  pouring  something  on  it 
out  of  a  tin  can.  His  sleeve  was  dangling,  and  every  time 
the  belt  lacing  whirled  past,  it  flipped  the  sleeve  like  a 
clutching  finger  trying  to  jerk  his  arm  into  the  cruel  wheel. 

Uncle  Jack  walked  over  for  a  word  with  the  engineer, 
a  fat,  jolly  looking  man  who  seemed  well  satisfied  with  life. 
"Do  your  helpers  often  put  belt  dressing  on  while  the  belt 
is  running?"  he  asked. 

The  jolly  engineer  was  plainly  surprised.  "Why,  they 
never  do  it  any  other  time!"  he  exclaimed.  "Why  do 
you  ask?" 

"Only,"   said   the   explorer,   dryly,  "because   there  are 
several  hundred  men  killed  in  just  that  way  every  year  - 
and  most  of  them  have  families.     Don't  you  put  guards 
around  any  of  your  belts  in  this  mill,  either?" 

Again  that  puzzled  look  in  the  engineer's  eyes.  "No, 
not  here,"  he  answered  slowly.  "There  was  some  talk 
about  putting  them  on,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  It  wouldn't 
be  a  bad  idea,  either ;  every  now  and  then  some  poor  fellow 


WHERE   SAFETY  WAS   A  STRANGER  99 

loses  a  hand  or  an  arm.  Last  spring  a  new  man  from  out 
in  the  yards  was  walking  through  here,  and  the  wind  blew 
his  sleeve  too  near  the  belt.  It  yanked  him  clear  in  between 
the  belt  and  pulley  —  smashed  him  up  so  he  didn't  live 
more'n  a  couple  of  hours.  That  certainly  was  hard  luck." 

"Luck !"  snorted  Uncle  Jack,  when  the  three  were  out  of 
hearing.  "A  moving  belt  is  almost  as  dangerous  as  a  can 
of  gunpowder !  Yet  these  men  call  it  luck  when  it  takes 
off  an  arm  or  snuffs  out  a  life.  It's  disgusting." 

All  through  the  plant  they  found  the  same  state  of  affairs 
-  careless  men,  unguarded  machinery,  guesswork  every- 
where. In  the  machine  shop  they  found  men  and  boys 
cleaning  machines  that  were  running  at  top  speed.  Any 
one  could  see  how  easily  the  rags  and  soft  cotton  waste  they 
were  using  could  catch  in  the  moving  parts  and  draw  a 
hand  or  an  arm  into  the  flying  wheels. 

"I  noticed  in  the  accident  reports  of  one  single  state," 
Uncle  Jack  told  Betty,  "that  more  than  five  hundred  people 
were  hurt  in  that  very  way,  by  cleaning  machines  that 
were  moving.  Half  of  them  lost  fingers  and  many  lost 
their  hands  or  arms.  No  sensible  workman,  these  days, 
treats  his  machine  as  anything  but  downright  dangerous 
as  long  as  it's  running." 

The  buzz  saws  fascinated  the  twins.  They  felt  as  if 
they  could  stand  all  day  long  and  listen  to  the  drone  of 
the  saw  as  it  ate  its  way  into  the  clean  white  boards,  snarl- 
ing like  an  angry  dog  when  its  teeth  struck  a  knot  in  the 


ioo         SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

wood.  There  were  a  good  many  of  these  saws  in  the  big, 
long  room;  now  and  then  they  would  get  to  singing  to- 
gether like  a  music  class  at  school  and  then  they  would 
drop  out  of  tune  again. 

"Not  a  saw  guard  in  the  place/7  shouted  Bob  in  Uncle 
Jack's  ear,  for  the  saws  drowned  out  his  ordinary  tone. 

But  Uncle  Jack's  keen  eyes  had  already  caught  sight  of 
some  metal  guards  hung  up  on  the  wall  here  and  there. 
"They've  got  them,"  he  corrected,  "but  they  are  not  mak- 
ing any  use  of  them."  He  stepped  up  to  one  of  the  saws 
and  spoke  to  the  man  who  was  running  it.  "Why  don't 
you  keep  the  guard  on  your  saw?" 

"Aw,  those  things  are  a  nuisance,"  said  the  man.  "Yes, 
we're  supposed  to  keep  'em  on,  but  they'd  be  in  the  way 
-we  couldn't  get  the  work  out  so  fast  with  them." 

"That's  queer,"  said  Uncle  Jack.  "In  a  good  many 
mills  like  this  they've  found  that  a  man  using  a  good  saw 
guard  turns  out  more  work  than  ever  —  because  he's  so 
much  more  free  in  using  his  hands,  I  suppose." 

The  man  grunted,  but  did  not  answer.  On  their  way 
to  the  door,  the  Safety  Scouts  spied,  clear  back  in  one 
corner,  a  man  who  really  did  have  his  saw  guard  in  use. 
"And  a  rattling  lot  of  work  he's  turning  out,  too,"  said 
Bob,  after  the  three  had  watched  him  a  while  from  a  dis- 
tance. The  neat  metal  guard  came  clear  down  over  the 
murderous  saw  teeth,  so  that  no  matter  how  much  his 
fingers  happened  to  be  in  the  way,  they  were  safe. 


WHERE   SAFETY  WAS   A   Sl^RA-NG^R.      ;     101 

"  Let's  ask  him  why  he  uses  his  saw  guard  when  the  others 
won't, "  said  Uncle  Jack.  He  stepped  nearer  the  silent 
workman  and  then  —  he  saw  the  reason.  Turning  to  Bob 
and  Betty,  he  tapped  his  left  hand  with  his  right  and  jerked 
his  head  toward  the  man  beside  the  saw.  The  twins 
walked  around  to  where  they  could  get  a  look  at  the  work- 
man's left  hand.  Then  they  understood.  There  was  noth- 
ing left  of  the  fingers  but  the  stub  of  one,  and  the  thumb  ! 

"Easy  enough  to  see  why  that  one  man  was  using  his 
saw  guard,  eh?"  said  Uncle  Jack  to  Sure  Pop  that  night. 

"Nothing  easier,"  said  the  little  Colonel.  "A  burnt 
child  dreads  the  fire,  you  know.  Not  much  Safety  First 
idea  noticeable  in  that  mill,  was  there?" 

"  Colonel,  that's  just  what  I  don't  understand.  I  thought 
you  said  yesterday  your  Safety  Scouts  had  done  good  work 
among  the  wood- working  mills,  but  if  that's  a  sample  - 

"It  isn't,"  was  the  quiet  answer.  "Do  you  happen  to 
know  who's  the  biggest  stockholder  in  that  mill?" 

Uncle  Jack  stared.     "  Surely  not  —  not  Bruce  ?  " 

"You've  guessed  it." 

Uncle  Jack  gave  a  long,  low  whistle  of  surprise.  "But 
I  had  no  idea  he  owned  wood- working  mills  too." 

"This  is  the  only  one.  It's  out  of  his  line,  I'll  admit  — 
but  it  goes  to  show  his  bitter  prejudice  against  the  Safety 
First  movement,  doesn't  it  ?  He'll  come  around  by  and  by, 
never  fear.  All  in  good  time,  my  friend,  all  in  good  time." 


ADVENTURE   NUMBER   SEVENTEEN 

GIVING   THE    OTHER   FELLOW   A    SQUARE   DEAL 

The  Dal  ton  twins  had  something  on  their  minds.  Mother 
felt  it.  Uncle  Jack  felt  it.  Every  now  and  then  they 
forgot  to  go  on  eating  their  breakfast ;  and  when  a  Dal  ton 
went  that  far,  as  their  uncle  remarked,  things  were  getting 
very  bad  indeed. 

Betty  sat  and  fidgeted.  Bob  looked  as  if  he  would  like 
to  pop  one  question  at  his  uncle,  but  he  managed  to  hold  it 
in.  Finally  Betty  slid  down  from  her  chair,  went  boldly 
around  to  Uncle  Jack,  and  whispered  something  in  his  ear. 
How  he  threw  back  his  handsome  head  and  laughed ! 

"Betty,  you're  a  regular  mind  reader!  Why,  we're 
going  down  to  try  them  on  this  very  morning,  and  I  was 


102 


GIVING  THE  OTHER  FELLOW  A  SQUARE  DEAL    103 

just  going  to  tell  you  to  get  ready,  but  you  were  too  quick 
forme!" 

Two  hours  later  Betty,  looking  very  spruce  in  her  new 
Safety  Scout  uniform,  was  dancing  up  and  down  before 
the  mirrors  while  Bob's  blouse  was  having  the  buttons  set 
over  a  bit. 

"That  boy,"  said  the  tailor,  looking  at  him  with  bulging 
eyes,  "has  grown  smaller  since  this  uniform  was  measured ! " 

"If  you'd  seen  the  luncheon  he  tucked  away,  just  before 
we  came  over  that  day  to  be  measured,"  laughed  Uncle 
Jack,  "you'd  only  wonder  that  those  buttons  won't  have  to 
be  set  back  at  least  a  foot !  Now,  where  are  the  trousers?" 

"They  are  up  in  the  shop.  Wait,  I'll  get  them.  What? 
You'd  like  to  come  along?  Up  this  way,  then." 

On  the  second  floor  they  found  themselves  in  a  big  room 
that  looked  like  a  forest  of  sewing  machines,  humming  and 
clicking  so  fast  that  at  first  the  twins  were  fairly  bewildered. 
Girls  who,  it  seemed,  could  hardly  be  older  than  Betty 
were  bending  over  their  machines,  sewing  away  as  if  for 
dear  life.  Most  of  them  did  not  even  look  up  from  their 
work  as  the  visitors  came  through. 

"The  young  man's  trousers  are  in  this  next  room," 
said  the  tailor,  leading  the  way  to  a  heavy  iron  door  which 
separated  the  two  rooms  on  that  floor. 

"What's  the  idea  of  this  iron  door?"  asked  Uncle  Jack. 
"To  keep  a  fire  from  spreading  from  one  department  into 
the  other?" 


104         SURE   POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"Exactly  so.  That  big,  thick  fire  wall  goes  straight 
through  the  building  from  top  to  bottom  —  cuts  it  in  two. 
Suppose  a  fire  breaks  out  here  on  the  piecework  side: 
the  foreman  just  opens  this  fire  door  and  shoos  the  boys  and 
girls  right  through,  like  a  lot  of  chickens.  Then  he  shuts 
the  fire  door  tight,  and  they  are  safe.  That  big  fire  we 
had  here  four  years  ago  taught  us  something.  So  when 
the  owner  rebuilt  it  for  us,  he  built  it  right. " 

The  big  room  on  the  other  side  of  the  fire  wall  was  crowded 
almost  as  full  of  workers  as  the  first  one.  The  main  differ- 
ence was  that  there  were  more  boys  and  men,  and  that 
more  sewing  was  being  done  by  hand.  Bob's  khaki  trousers 
were  quickly  found  and  tried  on  —  a  perfect  fit. 

"We'll  give  Bob  a  Patrol  Leader's  arm  badge  —  two 
white  bars  of  braid  below  his  left  shoulder,"  said  Uncle 
Jack.  "Betty  will  get  one  bar  for  the  present,  I  under- 
stand. There  are  some  badges  yet  to  come,  Colonel  Sure 
Pop  says." 

Bob  and  Betty  looked  at  each  other,  too  pleased  to  talk. 

The  four  were  walking  downstairs  for  a  look  at  the  other 
floors  of  the  big  tailor  shop  when  the  noon  whistle  blew. 
R-r-rip  —  slam  —  bang !  A  torrent  of  rattle-brained  boys 
came  tearing  pell  mell  down  the  stairs  like  a  waterfall  over 
a  dam.  Most  of  them  came  pelting  down  three  steps  at 
a  jump,  but  on  one  of  the  landings  somebody  stumbled, 
and  the  yelling  boys  piled  up  in  a  squirming,  kicking  heap. 

"Hey!    WAIT!"    No  one  would  ever  have  suspected 


GIVING  THE  OTHER  FELLOW  A  SQUARE  DEAL     105 

the  mild-mannered  tailor  of  having  such  a  foghorn  of  a 
voice !  The  rush  from  the  upper  floors  slowed  up  at  once, 
and  Uncle  Jack  and  Bob  helped  the  fallen  lads  pick  them- 
selves up.  But  the  boy  at  the  bottom,  a  little  fellow  with 
a  thin,  pinched  face  that  looked  as  if  he  had  never  had  half 
enough  to  eat,  nor  even  enough  fresh  air,  lay  there  moaning 
softly. 

Bob  knew  that  queer,  unnatural  angle  of  the  boy's  right 
arm,  which  lay  awkwardly  stretched  out  beside  him,  as  if 
it  had  never  quite  matched  his  left.  The  arm  was  broken. 

"Here,  here!"  roared  the  tailor,  gently  picking  the  little 
fellow  up  and  carrying  him  to  the  elevator.  "Will  you 
crazy  fellows  never  learn  ?  Only  last  week,  somebody  hol- 
lered '  Fire ! '  just  to  see  the  other  fellows  jump  up  and  run, 
and  broke  that  poor  little  Levinski's  collar  bone !  And 
now  look  at  this!" 

"The  old  fellow's  right  on  that  score,"  was  Uncle  Jack's 
remark  as  the  twins  followed  him  to  the  street  car,  each 
hugging  tight  a  big  pasteboard  box  with  a  brand  new  Safety 
Scout  uniform  inside  it.  "Those  lads  meant  no  particular 
harm,  but  that  certainly  was  about  as  far  from  a  square 
deal  as  one  fellow  can  give  another.  These  '  practical 
jokers '  who  will  yell  '  Fire  ! '  or  run  over  a  boy  smaller  than 
themselves  —  well,  if  a  Boy  Scout  had  no  more  sense  than 
that,  he'd  be  drummed  out  of  the  service !" 

Once  on  the  way  home,  when  the  car  stopped  at  the  corner, 
he  pointed  up  to  a  fire  escape  on  a  big  flat  building. 


io6         SURE   POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"There's  your  flower-pot  risk  over  again,  Betty.  Even 
worse,  for  this  time  they're  on  the  fire  escape  steps  where 
folks  would  fall  over  head  first  in  case  of  fire.  And  see 
that  girl  leaning  against  that  rickety  old  porch  railing  on 
the  third  floor!  Certainly  there's  plenty  in  sight  for  a 
Safety  Scout  to  do!" 

That  afternoon  they  visited  a  large  machine  shop  across 
the  river.  To  their  great  delight,  Bob  and  Betty  were 
allowed  to  wear  their  new  Safety  Scout  uniforms,  leggings 
and  all.  They  stood  very  straight  as  they  waited  for  their 
companion  to  get  a  permit  at  the  Company's  office. 

"Those  new  uniforms  are  going  to  be  about  as  good  an 
'ad'  for  Safety  First  as  anything  we  could  have,"  re- 
marked Uncle  Jack,  leading  the  way  into  the  big  machine 
shop.  He  had  caught  the  admiring  glances  that  had  fol- 
lowed them  from  the  older  people  and  the  longing  looks 
that  the  boys  and  girls  had  sent  after  them  all  the  way  over. 

"We  haven't   done   our   ' Day's  Boost  for  Safety'  yet, 

though,"  said  Betty.     "  I  don't  know  but  we  ought  to  do  our 

good  turn  every  morning  before  we  start  out  on  any  trip 

- 1  just  hate  not  to  get  my  button  right  side  up  till  so  late 

in  the  day ! " 

"Those  girls  have  pretty  neat  looking  uniforms  of  their 
own,  haven't  they?"  said  Bob,  a  little  later,  as  they  gazed 
down  a  long  row  of  punch  presses  which  were  pouring  out 
shining  streams  of  aluminum  pin  trays.  "What  do  they 
wear  them  for  —  just  to  look  pretty?" 


GIVING  THE  OTHER  FELLOW  A  SQUARE  DEAL     107 

"You  wouldn't  have  thought  so,"  laughed  the  fore- 
woman, "if  you  could  have  seen  how  they  fought  the  first 
caps  and  aprons  we  tried  to  get  them  to  wear.  They  were 
homely  things,  even  if  they  were  life  savers.  So  we  kept 
at  it  till  we  got  something  so  trim  and  pretty  that  the  girls 
would  rather  wear  it  than  not." 

"Life  savers?"  repeated  Betty.  "How  could  caps  and 
aprons  save  lives  ?  Oh — by  not  catching  in  the  machinery? ' ' 

"Just  so.  It's  easy  for  a  girl's  hair  to  be  blown  into  the 
machines,  or  for  a  braid  to  swing  against  a  whirling  shaft, 
you  see.  Oh  yes,  we  had  several  girls  killed  that  way, 
before  we  tried  this  uniform.  They  used  to  wear  dresses 
with  baggy  sleeves,  —  ragged  ones,  sometimes.  Rings 
and  bracelets  are  bad,  too;  and  even  these  aprons,  you'll 
notice,  are  buttoned  back  so  they  can't  fly  out  against  the 
wheels.  Yes,  the  girls  all  like  the  idea  now.  The  caps 
keep  their  hair  from  getting  dusty  or  mussed  up.  Besides, 
we  find  it  saves  a  good  many  girls'  feelings,  too,  having  them 
all  dressed  so  much  alike." 

The  same  good  sense  was  shown  in  the  other  depart- 
ments, in  the  working  clothes  worn  by  the  men  and  boys. 

"You  won't  find  a  man  in  this  room  with  a  necktie  on," 
the  foreman  told  them.  "These  are  the  biggest  punch 
presses  in  our  whole  shop.  A  while  ago  one  of  the  men  got 
his  necktie  caught  between  the  cogwheels  and  he  was  drawn 
into  the  machine  head  first.  That  was  the  end  of  that  sort 
of  thing  in  this  shop ! 


io8        SURE    POP    AND    THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

"Now,  as  you'll  see,  long  sleeves  and  ragged  or  baggy 
overalls  are  things  of  the  past.  If  a  man  does  wear  a 
long  sleeve,  he  keeps  it  rolled  up  where  it  can't  catch  and 
cost  him  a  hand  or  an  arm. 

"Watch  the  men  and  boys,  and  you'll  see  how  careful 
they  are  not  to  look  around  while  their  machines  are  run- 
ning. Before  they  start  their  machines,  you'll  find  them 
looking  all  around  to  see  there's  nobody  near  who  might 
get  caught  in  the  wheels  or  belt.  These  workmen  are  just 
as  anxious  to  give  the  other  fellow  a  square  deal  as  anybody 
could  be,  once  they  catch  the  Safety  First  idea.  It  took 
some  of  them  a  long  while  to  learn  never  to  fool  with  the 
other  fellow's  machine  —  that's  always  dangerous,  you 
know,  just  like  a  machine  that's  out  of  order.  Our  press- 
men wouldn't  think  of  starting  up  a  machine  which  was  out 
of  order,  or  which  they  didn't  understand  —  they'd  report 
it  to  me  at  once." 

"What  has  been  the  result  of  all  this  Safety  training  — 
has  it  got  the  men  to  '  thinking  Safety,'  so  you  don't  have 
so  many  accidents?"  asked  Uncle  Jack. 

The  foreman's  face  glowed  with  pride.  "Why,  it's  got 
so  now,  sir,  that  even  the  youngsters  are  too  wise  to  scuffle 
or  play  jokes  on  each  other  here  in  the  shop.  They've 
come  to  see  how  easy  it  is  to  fall  against  dangerous  machin- 
ery or  down  a  shaft  or  stairway.  And  as  for  throwing 
things  at  each  other,  the  way  they  used  to  during  the  noon 
hour  —  nothing  doing  any  more  in  that  line. 


GIVING  THE  OTHER  FELLOW  A  SQUARE  DEAL     109 

"Would  you  believe  it,  we  haven't  had  a  bad  accident  in 
this  shop  since  a  year  ago  last  July.  That  was  when  one 
of  the  boys  on  a  punch  press  got  the  die  clogged  and  tried 
to  dig  it  out  with  his  fingers  instead  of  using  a  hook.  That's 
about  the  last  set  of  fingers  this  shop  has  lost;  yes,  sir. 
Before  that,  there  was  hardly  a  week  went  by  but  we  had 
several  hands  crippled,  and  often  somebody  killed.  Oh, 
this  Safety  First  work  is  wonderful,  —  it's  making  things 
a  lot  safer  for  the  working  man  !" 

Uncle  Jack  told  the  kindly  foreman  what  the  twins  were 
doing  in  Safety  patrol  work.  Bob  and  Betty  could  see  how 
proud  the  man  was  of  the  splendid  Safety  showing  his  shop 
was  making.  "And  it's  a  fine  pair  of  Scout  uniforms  you 
and  the  little  lady  have,"  he  called  after  them.  "More 
power  to  you  both  —  and  to  the  Safety  Scouts  of  America  ! " 

"You  seem  very  much  interested  in  everything  in  these 
shops,  Bob,"  said  his  uncle,  who  could  hardly  drag  him 
away. 

"You'd  better  believe  I  am!"  cried  the  boy,  warmly. 
"As  soon  as  I  get  through  school,  I'm  going  to  get  a  job 
in  one  of  these  factories  and  —  well,  I'm  trying  to  make  up 
my  mind  which  shop  it  shall  be  !" 

One  thing  you  always  owe  the  other  fellow  —  a 

square  deal.  —  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE   NUMBER   EIGHTEEN 

AN   ADVENTURE    IN   SAFETY 

Betty  told  Sure  Pop  what  Bob  had  said  about  getting  a 
job  in  one  of  the  big  mills  by  and  by,  and  the  little  Colonel 
remembered  it  a  few  weeks  later  when  he  was  showing  sev- 
eral of  the  Safety  Scouts  through  the  steel  mills. 

"Do  you  think  it  will  be  one  of  these  mills  you'll  pick 
out  for  your  first  job?" 

"Well,  I  don't  know,  now.  It's  a  pretty  big,  lonesome 
sort  of  place  for  a  fellow  like  me,  Sure  Pop,  and  there  don't 
seem  to  be  so  many  fellows  of  my  own  age  here  as  in  some 
of  the  other  factories." 

Betty  and  Joe  and  Chance  followed  Bob's  eyes  around 
the  big  steel  mill  yards.  They  knew  how  he  felt.  It  was 


AN  ADVENTURE  IN  SAFETY  in 

a  lonesome  looking  place  till  you  got  used  to  it,  in  spite  of 
the  thousands  of  men  who  swarmed  around  them.  The 
queer,  raw  smell  of  the  reddish  iron  ore  added  to  the  feel- 
ing, too. 

Away  down  in  the  big  ore  boats  along  the  docks,  gangs 
of  big,  brawny  workmen  strained  and  sweated,  filling  the 
iron  buckets  that  traveled  up  the  wire  cables  to  the  ore 
dumps.  Others  were  trucking  the  ore  to  the  furnaces, 
while  a  swarm  of  little  switch  engines  panted  and  puffed 
back  and  forth  over  the  network  of  steel  rails. 

The  steel  works  covered  many  acres  of  ground,  and,  shut 
off  as  they  were  by  high  fences,  seemed  almost  like  another 
world.  The  roar  of  the  furnaces  and  the  din  of  steel  on 
steel  made  Betty  and  the  boys  feel  rather  confused  at  first. 
"  I  should  think  all  these  men  just  over  from  the  old  country 
would  get  mixed  up,  so  many  of  them  not  understanding 
a  single  word  of  English/'  said  Betty  to  their  guide. 

"  Yes,  we  have  to  be  mighty  careful,77  said  the  man,  who 
was  one  of  the  Safety  men  who  gave  all  his  time  to  making 
the  steel  mills  safer  for  the  thousands  of  workmen.  "We 
print  this  little  book  of  Safety  Rules  in  all  the  different 
languages,  so  that  each  new  man  can  study  it  and  find  out 
how  to  do  his  day's  work  without  getting  into  danger." 

"Wow!  what's  that?"  Joe's  black  eyes  opened  very 
wide  as  he  pointed  to  a  great  ball  of  fire  that  rose  from 
one  of  the  furnace  stacks,  floated  a  little  way  like  a  balloon, 
and  then  burst  into  a  sheet  of  flame. 


ii2         SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"Just  the  gas  from  the  blast  furnace  —  regular  Fourth 
of  July  fireworks,  isn't  it?  I  remember  how  queer  those 
gas  bubbles  used  to  look  to  me  when  I  first  came  to  work 
here." 

He  waited  while  his  visitors  stared  for  a  few  minutes  at 
the  fiery  clouds,  then  led  the  way  to  the  blast  furnaces. 
They  went  through  two  or  three  big  buildings,  all  of  them 
fairly  alive  with  hurrying,  sweating  laborers.  But  in  spite 
of  the  seeming  confusion  all  around  them,  Bob  noticed  how 
carefully  the  aisles  and  passageways  were  kept  free  and 
clear  of  anything  the  hurrying  men  might  stumble  over. 

"We  simply  have  to  do  it,"  explained  the  steel  man. 
"Before  we  woke  up  to  the  importance  of  never  leaving 
anything  in  the  way  where  it  might  be  stumbled  over,  we 
had  more  broken  arms  and  legs  every  month  than  you  could 
shake  a  stick  at.  Now  it's  different ;  it's  as  much  as  a  man's 
job  is  worth  to  leave  anything  lying  in  the  passageways 
for  his  fellow  workmen  to  stumble  and  fall  over." 

"I  saw  some  white  lines  painted  on  the  floor  of  that  last 
room  we  came  through,  the  one  where  all  those  castings 
were  stacked  up  in  rows,"  said  Chance.  "Was  that  what 
they  were  for?  Great  scheme,  isn't  it?  And  as  simple 
as  falling  off  a  log!" 

"Simple?  Sure  —  most  of  these  things  are  simple 
enough,  once  you  think  of  them,"  agreed  their  guide.  "It 
took  perhaps  an  hour  of  one  man's  time  and  a  gallon  or 
two  of  white  paint  to  paint  those  dead-lines  along  the  sides 


AN  ADVENTURE   IN   SAFETY  113 

-  and  many's  the  man  who  has  been  saved  weeks  in  the 
hospital  by  those  same  white  lines." 

The  five  friends  followed  him  into  the  foundry  depart- 
ment. Hardly  had  they  stepped  through  the  doorway, 
when  the  clang  of  a  big  gong  overhead  scattered  a  group 
of  laborers  who  were  piling  heavy  castings  on  flat  cars. 

Five  pairs  of  eyes  looked  up  as  the  five  Safety  Scouts 
turned  to  see  where  the  gong  was.  Away  up  above  them 
on  a  track  that  went  from  one  end  of  the  long  room  to  the 
other,  they  saw  something  like  an  oddly  shaped  freight 
engine  running  along  with  a  heavy  wire  cable  dangling 
toward  the  floor.  The  big,  strong  cable  was  carrying  a 
load  of  several  tons  of  steel  castings  as  easily  as  a  boy  carries 
in  an  armful  of  wood.  "  And  with  a  whole  lot  less  fuss  and 
bother !"  said  Betty,  with  a  sly  look  at  Brother  Bob. 

"When  a  man  hears  that  gong  overhead,"  said  the  guide, 
"he  knows  what  it  means  even  before  he  looks  up.  That's 
what  is  called  a  traveling  crane.  It  runs  back  and  forth 
on  those  overhead  tracks,  wherever  the  crane  driver  wants 
to  pick  up  or  drop  his  load.  He  kicks  that  gong  with  his 
heel,  just  like  the  motorman  on  the  street  car,  and  it  gives 
warning  to  the  workmen  below  just  as  plainly  as  if  it  yelled 
out,  'Look  out,  below!  Here  comes  a  load  that  might 
spill  on  your  heads  ! ' ' 

"Sounds  exactly  like  a  street-car  gong,"  said  Betty. 

The  steel  man  smiled.  "It  ought  to  —  it  was  made  for 
use  on  a  street  car.  Watch  sharp  when  the  crane  comes 


ii4         SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

back  this  way  and  you'll  see  the  gong  fastened  right  up 
under  the  cab  floor.  See?  We  tried  whistles  for  a  while, 
and  automobile  horns,  too ;  but  this  plain,  everyday  street- 
car gong  beats  'em  all.  A  man  doesn't  have  to  understand 
English  to  know  what  that  sound  means!" 

"It  must  have  made  a  good  deal  of  difference  in  the 
,  number  of  accidents,"  said  Sure  Pop,  "with  so  many  men 
working  underneath  those  cranes  right  along." 

"Did  it?  Well,  I  should  say  so!  That's  another  little 
thing  that's  as  simple  as  A  B  C,  but  it  saves  lives  and 
broken  bones  just  the  same.  Sometimes  I  think  we  get 
to  thinking  too  much  about  the  big  things,  Colonel,  and 
not  enough  about  these  little,  everyday  ideas  that  spell 
Safety  to  all  these  thousands  of  men  who  look  to  us  for 
a  square  deal." 

Sure  Pop  reached  up  to  say  something  in  Bob's  ear  as 
they  went  on  to  the  chipping  yard,  where  long  rows  of  men 
were  trimming  down  the  rough  steel  castings  with  chisels 
driven  by  compressed-air  hammers. 

"Did  you  ever  see  anything  like  it,  Bob,  the  way  this 
' square  deal'  and  'fair  play'  idea  gets  into  their  systems, 
once  they  wake  up  to  the  possibilities  of  Safety  First?" 

"It  certainly  does,"  said  Bob.  "I  thought  of  that, 
too.  It's  what  that  tailor  told  the  boys  in  the  clothing 
factory,  the  day  we  got  our  uniforms,  and  it's  just  what 
the  foreman  in  that  machine  shop  told  us,  too." 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Sure  Pop,  "the  spirit  of  fair  play  means 


AN  ADVENTURE   IN  SAFETY  115 

everything  to  a  fellow  who's  any  good  at  all  —  it's  the  very 
life  of  the  Boy  Scout  law,  you  know." 

Joe  was  looking  hard  at  the  chippers. 

" Every  one  of  those  men  wear  glasses!  Isn't  that 
queer  ! " 

"It's  all  the  difference  between  a  blind  man  and  a  wage 
earner,"  was  the  way  the  steel  man  looked  at  it.  "When 
those  steel  chips  fly  into  a  man's  eyes  it's  all  over  but  the 
sick  money."  He  turned  to  little  Sure  Pop  again.  "There 
it  is  again,  Colonel  —  another  of  the  simplest  ideas  a  man 
could  imagine  —  just  putting  goggles  on  our  chippers  and 
emery  wheel  workers  —  but  it  has  saved  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  eyes,  and  every  eye  or  pair  of  eyes  means 
some  man's  living  —  and  the  living  of  a  family." 

"Splendid  idea,"  nodded  the  little  Colonel  —  just  as  if 
he,  the  Spirit  of  Safety,  had  not  thought  it  all  out  years 
before,  and  put  it  into  the  minds  of  men!  "Do  you  ever 
have  any  trouble  getting  the  men  to  wear  them?" 

"Plenty!  Most  of  the  men  treated  it  as  a  joke  at  first. 
Then,  gradually,  they  began  to  notice  that  the  men  who 
wore  theirs  on  their  hats  (the  rule  is  that  they  must  wear 
goggles  while  at  this  work  or  lose  their  jobs),  those  were  the 
men  who  lost  their  eyes.  Several  of  the  first  men  to  be 
blinded  after  the  new  rule  was  posted  were  those  very 
ones,  the  chaps  that  had  made  the  most  fun  of  the  goggles. 
Then  the  others  began  to  wake  up. 

"Over  in  my  office,  I've  several  hundred  pairs  of  goggles 


n6    SURE  POP  AND  THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

that  have  had  one  or  both  lenses  smashed  by  flying  bits 
of  steel  —  and  every  pair  has  saved  an  eye,  in  some  cases 
both  eyes.  Seems  sort  of  worth  while,  eh,  Colonel?" 

It  was  an  enthusiastic  group  of  Safety  Scouts  that  passed 
out  through  the  big  steel  mill  gates  and  started  home  in 
the  mellow  September  twilight.  aOh,  I  think  it's  won- 
derful," cried  Betty,  as  they  talked  over  what  they  had 
seen,  "perfectly  wonderful,  Sure  Pop,  that  such  little  things 
can  save  so  many  lives !" 

"But  I  don't  see  why  you  call  a  trip  like  this  'an  adven- 
ture,'" broke  in  Chance,  who  had  never  been  along  on  any 
of  the  twins'  Safety  Scouting  trips  before.  "We  didn't 
see  an  accident  or  an  explosion  or  anything !" 

Colonel  Sure  Pop  gave  Chance  one  of  his  wise  smiles. 
"That's  the  best  part  of  the  whole  trip,  as  you'll  see  when 
you've  been  at  it  as  long  as  I  have.  The  most  delightful 
adventure  a  lover  of  fair  play  can  possibly  have  to  look 
back  on,  my  boy,  is  one  just  like  what  we've  had  today  - 
a  real,  live  adventure  in  Safety !" 

The  spirit  of  fair  play  is  the  very  life  of  the 

Scout  Law.  —  SURE  POP 


ADVENTURE   NUMBER   NINETEEN 

ONE   DAY'S   BOOST   FOR    SAFETY 

October  had  come  and  gone  in  busy  school  days  and 
even  busier  Safety  Scouting  trips,  all  but  the  last  day.  For 
it  was  the  morning  of  Hallowe'en,  —  and  the  Dalton  twins' 
birthday. 

"Twelve  years  old,  eh?"  said  Father,  at  the  breakfast 
table.  "Well,  well,  how  time  flies,  Nell!  Stand  up  here, 
you  Safety  Scouts,  and  let's  have  a  look  at  you.  I  declare, 
no  one  would  suspect  Bob  of  being  a  day  under  fifteen,  would 
he,  Jack?" 

"I'd  hate  to  have  him  haul  off  and  hit  me  with  that  fist 
of  his!"  laughed  Uncle  Jack.  "How  are  you  going  to 
celebrate  the  day,  Scouts?" 

117 


n8    SURE  POP  AND  THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

"As  if  any  one  need  ask!"  smiled  Mother.  "Today's 
the  day  Bob  takes  his  entering  test  and  joins  the  Boy  Scouts, 
and  Betty  joins  the  Camp  Fire  Girls.  Just  think  —  big 
enough  for  that !  Good  thing  it's  Saturday,  Betty." 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  —  start  out  to  capture  all 
the  honor  medals?" 

"Well,  I  hope  to  get  a  few,  by  and  by,"  admitted  Bob, 
modestly,  but  with  a  determined  gleam  in  his  eye.  "I'll 
be  just  a  tenderfoot  to  start  with,  you  know.  But  I'm 
hoping  it  won't  be  so  terribly  long  before  I  can  qualify  as  a 
first-class  Scout." 

"Hm-m-m!"  muttered  their  uncle,  winking  at  Mr. 
Dalton  over  the  twins'  heads.  For  he  realized  what  Bob 
and  Betty  did  not,  that  the  practical,  everyday  Safety 
scouting  the  twins  had  done  had  already  gone  far  toward 
qualifying  them,  not  only  for  Boy  Scout  and  Camp  Fire 
Girl  honors,  but  for  practical  Safety  work  all  the  rest  of 
their  lives.  There  is  no  age  limit  in  the  Safety  Scouts  of 
America. 

They  were  wearing  their  handsome  new  uniforms  when 
Chance  Carter  came  over  to  get  some  scouting  tips  from 
Bob.  Chance  was  going  around  without  his  crutches  now, 
for  the  broken  leg  seemed  to  be  as  strong  and  well  as  ever. 

Chance  had  his  heart  set  on  a  Safety  Scout  uniform  like 
Bob's.  "  Dad  says  he'll  get  me  one  as  soon  as  I  do  some- 
thing to  earn  it,"  he  told  the  twins.  "  I'm  going  to  put  in 
all  day  today  scouting  for  something  that  will  earn  me  that 


ONE  DAY'S  BOOST  FOR  SAFETY  119 

uniform  —  and  I  want  you  two  to  think  up  some  stunt  that 
will  win  it,  sure  !  " 

The  twins  were  eager  to  get  ready  for  their  entrance 
tests,  but  it  seemed  only  fair  to  give  their  friend  his  chance, 
too.  So  they  sat  and  thought  hard,  while  the  golden  min- 
utes flew  past. 

"I  can't  seem  to  think  of  anything  worth  while  today," 
said  Betty.  "Why  not  hunt  for  a  live  wire  and  report  it, 
the  way  Bob  did?" 

"Not  much  use  on  a  day  like  this,"  objected  Bob.  "That 
was  the  morning  after  the  big  windstorm,  when  wires  were 
down  all  over  town.  I'll  tell  you  what  you  might  do, 
Chance:  you  might  patrol  the  roads  on  the  edge  of  town. 
You  may  run  across  a  broken  culvert,  or  a  shaky  bridge,  or 
something." 

"And  you  might  patrol  the  river  bank  and  watch  for 
a  chance  to  fish  somebody  out  of  the  river,"  added  Betty. 
''  There  are  lots  of  children  playing  down  by  the  river  every 
Saturday,  you  know." 

"Now,"  said  Bob,  when  to  their  great  relief  Chance 
Carter  had  hurried  off  to  begin  his  day's  scouting  for  Safety, 
"now,  we've  got  to  hustle,  or  we'll  be  late  for  those  ex- 
aminations. Come  along,  Betty." 

"Wait  till  I  turn  my  Safety  button  upside  down,"  was 
his  sister's  answer.  "It  seems  a  shame  to  go  to  the  Boy 
Scout  and  Camp  Fire  Girls  tests  with  our  Safety  buttons 
wrong  side  up,  doesn't  it?  I  feel  almost  like  waiting  till 


120        SURE  POP  AND   THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

we've  managed  to  do  our  'One  Day's  Boost  for  Safety,' 
Bob.     Don't  you  suppose  we'd  better,  after  all?" 

"Oh,  now,  Betty,  come  on!  If  we  can't  do  any  better, 
we  can  count  our  patrolling  hints  to  Chance  as  our  work 
for  Safety  this  time  —  certainly  that  took  enough  longer  than 
our  day's  boost  usually  does!" 

Though  Betty  scoffed  at  the  idea  of  their  talk  with  Chance 
being  work  for  Safety,  Bob  had  spoken  more  truly  than  they 
knew. 

All  forenoon  long  Chance  Carter  patrolled  the  different 
roads  leading  into  town.  By  noon  he  was  so  hot  and  tired 
that  he  plodded  on  till  he  came  to  Red  Bridge,  as  the  boys 
all  called  the  old  bridge  that  spanned  the  river  where  it 
crossed  Bruce's  Road,  the  short  cut  to  Bruce's  Mills.  Here 
he  managed  to  find  a  shady  spot  on  the  grassy  river  bank 
and  sat  down  to  eat  the  lunch  he  had  brought  along. 

"What  luck!"  he  grumbled  to  himself.  "Everything's 
so  dis-gm/-ing-ly  safe!"  The  way  he  bit  off  the  syllables 
showed  how  tired  and  disappointed  he  was. 

He  threw  the  crumbs  from  his  luncheon  into  the  water, 
hoping  the  fish  would  rise  for  them ;  but  even  the  fish  were 
not  at  all  accommodating,  this  sunny  Hallowe'en.  For  a 
while  he  amused  himself  by  shying  stones  at  the  weather- 
beaten  DANGER  sign  which  was  Bruce's  only  reply  to 
the  City  Council's  action  condemning  Red  Bridge  as  unsafe. 
The  bridge  was  really  on  Bruce's  land,  and  nobody  knew 
it  better  than  the  great  mill  owner  himself.  So,  while 


ONE   DAY'S   BOOST  FOR  SAFETY  121 

the  public  wondered  why  the  city  did  not  build  a  newer 
and  stronger  bridge,  Bruce  had  stubbornly  insisted  to  the 
road  commissioner,  "Oh,  that  bridge '11  hold  a  while  longer ," 
and  was  putting  off  spending  the  money  for  a  new  bridge 
just  as  long  as  he  could. 

Meanwhile  the  farmers  from  that  part  of  the  country 
had  kept  on  using  the  shaky  bridge  as  a  short  cut  to  town 
by  way  of  Bruce 's  Mills.  One  of  them  was  driving  up  to 
the  bridge  now.  Lying  on  his  elbow  by  the  river's  edge, 
Chance  idly  watched  the  old  bridge  quiver  and  quake  as 
the  light  horse  and  buggy  dragged  lazily  across. 

Suddenly  something  went  kerflop  into  the  water,  like  a 
big  fish  jumping.  Chance  sat  bolt  upright,  staring  at  the 
dark  shadows  under  the  bridge.  There  it  was  again ! 
And  this  time  he  saw  it  was  no  fish,  but  a  second  brick  which 
had  rotted  away  from  the  bridge  supports  underneath  the 
farther  end. 

"Phew!"  whistled  Chance  to  himself,  now  fully  aroused. 
"If  a  light  rig  like  that  shakes  the  bricks  loose,  the  old  thing 
must  be  rottener  than  it  looks !  What  would  a  loaded 
wagon  do,  I  wonder?" 

He  carefully  climbed  up  under  the  bridge  to  see  just  how 
bad  it  really  was,  and  then  climbed  out  again  in  a  hurry. 
The  whole  middle  support  had  crumbled  away.  Red  Bridge 
was  barely  hanging  on  the  weakened  brickwork  at  the  far 
end,  ready  to  plunge  into  the  river  with  the  next  heavy 
load  that  came  along ! 


122        SURE   POP   AND    THE    SAFETY   SCOUTS 

Bruce,  in  the  meanwhile,  was  getting  impatient.  He  sat 
at  his  desk  in  the  little  office,  signing  papers  as  fast  as  he 
could  shove  his  pen  across  the  pages.  He  glanced  again 
at  his  watch  and  gave  his  call  button  a  savage  punch  with 
his  big,  blunt  forefinger.  A  buzzer  snarled  in  the  outer 
office,  and  a  nervous  looking  secretary  jumped  for  the  pri- 
vate office  as  suddenly  as  if  the  buzzer  had  stung  him. 

"Why  isn't  that  car  here?"  snapped  the  great  man. 

"I  —  I  don't  understand  it,  sir.  It  should  have  been 
here  half  an  hour  ago.  Jennings  is  always  so  punctual," 
stammered  the  clerk. 

"Humph!  Call  up  the  house  and  see  if  they've  gone 
back  for  any  reason.  Bonnie  told  me  she'd  call  for  me  with 
the  car  at  five  o'clock." 

The  clerk  hurried  to  the  telephone,  while  Bruce  paced 
his  office.  "If  that  chauffeur  has  let  anything  happen  to 
Bonnie,  I'll— " 

If  Bruce  had  not  cared  more  for  his  little  golden-haired 
daughter  than  for  anything  else  in  the  world,  he  never 
would  have  thought  such  a  thing,  much  less  said  it ;  for  he 
had  had  Jennings  for  years,  and  knew  him  for  the  safest, 
steadiest  of  drivers.  But  he  scowled  when  the  clerk  hur- 
ried back  to  report  that  Jennings,  with  Bonnie  in  the 
biggest  automobile,  had  left  for  the  office  almost  an  hour 
before. 

Throwing  his  light  coat  over  his  arm,  the  big  mill  owner 
slammed  down  his  rolltop  desk  and  dashed  out  to  the  side- 


ONE  DAY'S   BOOST  FOR  SAFETY  123 

walk,  straining  his  eyes  for  a  glimpse  of  the  big  automobile 
and  Bonnie's  flying  curls.  As  he  stood  waiting  on  the  curb, 
fuming  at  the  delay,  suddenly  he  heard  a  voice  that  sent  his 
heart  up  into  his  throat. 

"Daddy!  Oh,  Daddy,  here  we  are!"  The  big  auto- 
mobile swept  swiftly  up  to  him  —  from  the  opposite 
direction ! 

"My  Bonnie !"  The  big  man  snatched  the  dimpled, 
smiling  girl  into  his  strong  arms  and  held  her  there. 

In  the  excitement  of  the  moment,  Jennings  interrupted 
his  employer  as  the  mill  owner  started  to  question  him 
sternly  as  to  the  cause  of  the  delay.  Bonnie,  too,  broke 
in  with  her  version  of  the  story,  and  together  they  told  him 
how  a  punctured  tire  had  held  them  up  fifteen  minutes 
just  as  they  were  leaving  the  house  in  plenty  of  time. 

They  told  him  how,  to  avoid  being  late  at  the  office,  Jen- 
nings had  taken  the  old  short  cut  across  to  the  mills,  by  the 
way  of  Red  Bridge,  only  to  be  halted  by  a  lad  of  fourteen  who 
waved  a  red  handkerchief  at  them  and  barred  the  way 
across  the  bridge  in  spite  of  the  chauffeur's  argument  and 
threats. 

They  told  him  how  a  heavy  lumber  wagon,  in  which  three 
farm  hands  were  rattling  home  from  the  city,  had  come 
bouncing  along  to  the  other  side  of  the  river  and  how  the 
men  had  howled  down  the  boy's  wild  warnings  and  entreaties 
as  they  bowled  on  to  Red  Bridge  as  fast  as  their  horses 
could  go. 


124         SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY  SCOUTS 

Bruce's  stern  face  went  white  as  his  little  daughter,  shud- 
dering at  the  awful  memory  of  it,  told  how  the  bridge  had 
gone  crashing  down  into  the  river  —  men,  horses,  and  all ; 
how  the  boy  who  had  tried  so  hard  to  warn  them  had 
almost  given  his  own  life  trying  to  drag  the  drunken  farm 
hands  from  the  swift-running  current ;  how  two  of  the  men 
had  never  come  up  again ;  and  how  the  third,  towed  to  shore 
by  the  half-drowned  boy  a  quarter  mile  below,  had  been  laid 
face  down  on  the  river  bank  as  soon  as  the  boy  could  catch 
his  own  breath  long  enough  to  get  the  water  out  of  the  man's 
lungs  and  start  him  to  breathing  again. 

Still  clasping  Bonnie  tightly  to  him,  her  father  got  into 
the  automobile.  "Home,  Jennings.  Why,  what  makes 
these  cushions  so  wet?" 

"Oh,"  said  Bonnie,  "that's  where  that  nice  boy  sat  while 
we  were  taking  the  almost  drowned  man  to  the  doctor's. 
Then  we  took  the  nice  boy  home  —  he  was  so  wet  and 
shivery." 

"Take  us  there  first,  Jennings,  then  home." 

The  big  car  whirled  swiftly  back  to  Chance  Carter's  house. 
Bruce  found  Chance  with  his  hair  still  wet,  but  triumphant. 
He  was  telling  his  father  exactly  how  he  wanted  his  new 
Safety  Scout  uniform  made,  patch  pockets  and  all ! 

From  him  Bruce  got  the  whole  story,  clear  down  to  the 
scouting  hints  from  Bob  and  Betty  that  had  started  him 
off  that  morning.  The  mill  owner  took  Mr.  Carter  aside 
and  made  him  promise  to  send  the  bill  for  that  uniform  to 


ONE   DAY'S   BOOST   FOR  SAFETY  125 

Bruce 's  Mills.  "  Where  do  this  other  boy  and  the  girl  live  ?  " 
he  asked,  as  he  and  Bonnie  got  back  into  the  machine. 
"All  right,  Jennings,  we'll  stop  there  next." 

"I  think,  sir,"  suggested  Jennings,  "that  must  be  the 
same  boy  and  girl  we  took  home  from  Turner  Hall  last 
Fourth  —  the  boy  who  put  the  splint  on  this  other  lad's 
broken  leg,  sir.  It's  the  same  house,  anyway." 

Sure  enough,  when  they  drew  up  at  the  curb,  there  were 
Bob  and  Betty  in  their  Safety  Scout  uniforms,  just  going 
in  to  their  birthday  supper.  They  were  going  to  have  a 
big  double  cake,  with  lots  of  frosting  and  with  twenty-four 
green  candles  on  it — green  for  Safety,  Betty  explained  —  and 
they  were  so  excited  over  having  passed  their  examinations 
with  such  high  marks,  that  it  was  some  time  before  the  big 
man  could  make  them  understand  what  he  was  getting  at. 

"What  I  want  to  know,"  persisted  Bruce,  "is  how  you 
ever  came  to  put  that  Carter  boy  up  to  such  a  stunt  as  that. 
What  difference  did  it  make  to  you?" 

"Why,"  Betty  told  him,  "we  simply  had  to  help  him 
get  a  start  for  his  uniform  and  his  Safety  First  button. 
But  we  couldn't  do  much  because  we  didn't  have  time. 
You  see  this  is  our  birthday,  and  we  had  to  go  for  our  ex- 
aminations." Before  Bruce  left  they  had  given  him  their 
whole  story,  too,  and  a  good  deal  more  than  they  had  in- 
tended telling  him,  forgetting  what  Colonel  Sure  Pop  had 
told  Uncle  Jack  about  the  way  Bruce  had  been  holding  back 
the  Safety  First  work  from  Maine  to  California. 


126        SURE  POP  AND  THE  SAFETY  SCOUTS 

Bruce  said  little  as  he  listened  to  their  story,  but  he  did 
some  quick  thinking.  So  this  was  the  sort  of  thing  he  had 
fought  so  long  and  so  stubbornly  —  this  "Boost  for  Safety " 
talk  which  he  had  called  "new-fangled  theory,"  but  to  which 
he  owed  the  life  of  his  own  little  girl ! 

As  they  talked,  two  Scouts  came  into  the  front  hall  to 
remind  the  twins  that  their  birthday  supper  was  waiting, 
but  Bruce  was  too  interested  to  see  them.  Quick  at  read- 
ing signs,  as  all  good  Scouts  are,  Colonel  Sure  Pop  and  Uncle 
Jack  watched  and  listened  for  a  moment,  then  smilingly  went 
back  to  the  supper  table. 

"You  were  right,  Colonel,  as  usual/'  said  Uncle  Jack, 
heartily.  "Bruce  is  coming  around.  Hell  be  the  biggest 
Safety  Booster  in  the  whole  United  States  before  morning !" 

"Sure  pop!"  exulted  the  dapper  little  Colonel.  "I'll 
have  to  wire  my  King  about  this  day's  work !" 

It  was  long  after  Bonnie's  bedtime,  and  the  nurse  waiting 
in  the  hallway  was  beginning  to  wonder  if  her  little  mis- 
tress was  never  coming  upstairs.  On  the  avenue  outside, 
in  the  soft,  mellow  Hallowe'en  breeze,  jack  o'  lanterns  and 
soot  bags  were  still  being  paraded  up  and  down,  horns 
blowing,  rattles  clattering.  Two  street  urchins,  bolder  than 
the  rest,  crept  up  to  the  great  iron  gate  in  front  of  the  Bruce 
mansion  and  vainly  struggled  to  lift  it  off  its  hinges.  Still 
the  mill  owner  sat  before  the  fire,  Bonnie  on  his  knee. 
He  could  not  bear  to  let  her  go  tonight,  even  to  bed. 


ONE   DAY'S   BOOST  FOR  SAFETY  127 

In  the  flames  dancing  on  the  hearth,  the  big  man  was 
seeing  visions  —  visions  of  the  Safety  First  work  that 
would  be  started  tomorrow  morning  in  every  mill  in  the 
whole  Bruce  chain.  "I'll  telegraph  every  manager  to  get 
busy  on  Safety  work  at  once  if  he  wants  to  hold  his  job," 
he  thought  to  himself.  "I  won't  lose  another  day!" 
For  after  hearing  from  the  Dalton  twins  and  from  Chance 
Carter  the  way  their  spare  time  was  spent,  his  own  work 
in  the  world  seemed  suddenly  very  small  and  mean.  Here 
he  —  Bruce  the  rich,  Bruce  the  powerful,  with  the  safety 
of  thousands  of  lives  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  —  had  been 
holding  back  the  great  work  which  these  striplings  had  been 
steadily,  patiently  —  yes,  and  successfully —  building  up  ! 

"I'll  send  those  three  youngsters  each  a  copy  of  my 
telegram  in  the  morning,"  he  muttered,  looking  more  eager 
and  enthusiastic  than  he  had  looked  for  many  a  day. 
"I'll  write  across  the  bottom  of  each  telegram,  'The  Safety 
Scouts  of  America  did  this!'  And  the  wonderful  part  of  it 
is,"  he  added,  "that  it's  only  what  any  boy  and  girl  could 
do,  every  day  of  their  lives.  I  wonder  why  somebody  didn't 
start  this  Safety  Scout  idea  long,  long  ago!" 

Over  in  the  Dalton  cottage,  only  a  few  blocks  away,  Bob 
and  Betty  were  going  upstairs  to  bed. 

"Many,  many  happy  returns  of  the  day!"  whispered 
Betty  to  her  brother  as  she  kissed  him  good  night. 

"Same  to  you,  and  many  of  'em!     But  our  'One  Day's 


128         SURE  POP  AND   THE   SAFETY   SCOUTS 

Boost  for  Safety'  didn't  amount  to  much  today,  did  it, 
Betty?"  For  Bob  and  Betty  had  yet  to  hear  of  Chance 
Carter's  adventures,  and  Bruce  had  given  them  no  hint. 

"No,  it  didn't  —  not  unless  what  we  told  Chance  gave 
him  a  start  toward  a  Safety  Scout  uniform,"  said  Betty, 
sleepily.  "Never  mind,  though,  Bob,"  she  added.  "We'll 
try  to  do  better  tomorrow,  if  we  didn't  get  much  done 
today." 

But  over  in  the  big  stone  house  on  the  avenue,  the 
silent  man  with  the  little  golden-haired  girl  in  his  arms 
thought  differently  of  their  day's  work. 


HOW   CAN    YOU    TELL   A    GOOD   SCOUT? 

In  school 

He  keeps  to  the  right  on  walks,  in  halls,  going 

up  and  down  stairs. 

He  goes  up  and  down  stairs  one  step  at  a  time. 
He  looks  where  he  runs. 
He  doesnt  jostle  in  a  crowd. 
He  doesnt  bully  the  little  fellows. 
He  sees  that  the  little  chaps  have  a  fair  chance 

on  the  playground  and  that  they  dont  get 

hurt. 

Out  of  school 

He  does  not  walk  on  railroad  bridges  or  tracks. 
He  does  not  walk  around  lowered  gates  or  crawl 

under  them. 
He  does  not  jump  off  moving  trains,  cars,  or 

engines. 

He  does  not  crawl  over,  under,  or  between  cars. 
He  does  not  loiter  around  railroad  stations  or 

cars  or  play  on  or  around  turn  tables. 
He  does  not  cross  tracks  without  remembering 

to  stop,  look,  and  listen. 

He  looks  where  he  goes  and  keeps  to  the  right. 
He   crosses   at  regular    crossings,    not   in    the 

middle  of  the  block. 

He  looks  out  for  automobiles  turning  corners. 
He   looks  and  listens  for  danger  signals  and 

heeds  them. 
He  plays  safe,  as  much  for  the  other  fellow's 

sake  as  his  own. 

129 


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